An alternative-sentencing program is asking for Vance County to restore funding for its efforts to break the cycle of revolving-door justice.
Ninth District Sentencing Services Executive Director Terry Hinton is due to appear before the county Board of Commissioners on Monday night to request an appropriation of $4,255 and office space for at least two people in the Henry A. Dennis Building on Garnett Street.
Hinton’s program is a nonprofit organization that administers state-authorized sentencing services to provide alternatives to prison for people charged with certain felonies or repeat-offense misdemeanors. A letter Hinton sent to County Manager Jerry Ayscue says Ninth District Sentencing Services saved the state $108,300 on prison beds in fiscal 2003-04.
Eligible felonies include breaking and entering, larceny, embezzlement, possession of stolen goods, and common-law robbery.
“The offender must have the desire and motivation to change his/her life and become crime free,” according to a brochure from the organization. “We try to focus on resources for nonviolent offenders in the community.”
The sentencing plans include full restitution for victims and, if necessary, substance-abuse treatment.
Hinton’s letter says the county provided money from 1996 to 2001.
Hinton’s request isn’t the only matter involving the Dennis Building on the commissioners’ agenda. Ayscue recommends that the commissioners spend $4,600 from the county’s contingency fund to replace a large air conditioner at the building. Gupton Roofing offered the lowest of three informal quotes for the work.
One public hearing is on the agenda. It is the second hearing for a grant request to test individual development accounts in the county.
Rick Seekins of the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments appeared on behalf of Team Vance at the commissioners’ March meeting for the first hearing on the IDA program and the grant request. The goal of the two-year program is to help 20 Vance families save money and get training to become first-time homeowners.
The county would seek $50,000 in state Community Development Block Grant money, and Team Vance would provide $10,000 of in-kind matching services for the program. After the public hearing, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., the commissioners may vote on the application.
Also on the agenda Monday night:
* Jackie Sergent of the Granville-Vance Health Department is due to present a State of the County health report based on a 2003 phone survey known as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The survey covered 479 adults in Vance, Granville and Franklin counties and found that the average resident of the three-county area, compared with the state overall, has less education, makes less money, is more likely to be from a minority group, is in worse physical and mental health, is less likely to have health insurance, is more likely to have a disability, gets less physical activity, is more likely to smoke and less likely to face pressure to quit, weighs too much, doesn’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, and is more likely to binge-drink. On the positive side, sunburn is comparatively rare in this area.
* Ayscue asks that the commissioners authorize the Department of Social Services to fill two vacant positions, an income maintenance caseworker and a human resources aide, and the Fire Department to fill one vacancy, an entry-level firefighter/emergency medical technician.
* Ayscue seeks approval to upgrade the status of one of three positions in the Animal Control Department. One of the two animal control officers I would become an animal control officer II, at an extra cost of $2,292 plus benefits per year. The third position is the chief animal control officer. Ayscue notes that the extra money for the final three months of this fiscal year can come out of surplus salary funds.
* Ayscue wants direction from the commissioners regarding enforcement of the franchise ordinance for ambulance services that they passed in March.
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the county administrative building on Young Street.