MOUNTAIN HOME — The Baxter County sheriff says he’ll ground the department’s helicopter and decrease the number of available beds in the jail to help address a budget shortfall for 2013.
Sheriff John Montgomery told the Baxter County Quorum Court on Tuesday that the jail will reduce its beds from 102 to 44 next year.
The sheriff also proposed to eliminate school resource officers and boat safety patrol.
Montgomery said the jail has a $137,000 shortfall for next year and that the cuts announced Tuesday would save $141,000.
Mountain Home radio station KTLO reported that the Quorum Court authorized a program that could grant some inmates early release based on good behavior, discipline and job responsibility.
Last month, Baxter County voters rejected a quarter-cent sales tax that would have funded county law enforcement.