by Noel Brennan
JEWETT - Faced with rising costs in a down economy, many Central Texas cities are predicting budget shortfalls next year, and the city of Jewett in Leon County is one of them.
Hoping to avoid raising taxes, Jewett city council members decided to make some small, but potentially crippling cuts to the city's police department. On Monday, council members voted to lay off one full-time patrolman. Now, the department only has two full-time officers including the police chief.
"It is extremely frustrating," said Jewett Police Chief, Marty Navarro. "I have citizens who contact me on a daily basis wanting to know why we're not a 24/7 department."
However, the city simply cannot afford to employ the number of officers needed to run the kind of "24/7 department" Navarro would like. In fact, the police force was not the only department to face cuts. During Monday's budget meeting, council members also released a part-time city secretary.
"By releasing those two, we cut the deficit of the budget by close to $60,000," explained Jewett Mayor Pro Tem, which has put us close to halfway to our goal."
Despite rumors circulating for weeks, council members avoided disbanding the entire police altogether. That's a move other cities have already made.
"The city of Alto, which is to the east of [Jewett] recently disbanded their police department," said Jewett Police Chief Navarro. "I believe it was three days later that their bank was robbed."
Chief Navarro understands balancing the budget is always going to be tough, but he doesn't want it to take priority over keeping people safe.
