Midway budget writers on Monday decided to hire an additional police officer next year, compromised on the thorny issue of probation supervision and scheduled a meeting for 6 p.m. today to complete the budget process.
Midway uses the calendar year as its fiscal year, and New Year’s Eve, Friday, Dec. 31, is a city holiday. When officials meet tonight, they will be down to a single working day — Thursday — to finalize the budget.
Having discussed the need for better supervision of probationers at several meetings, the Midway City Council decided to invite a representative from the Hinesville company that now provides that service to attend the Jan. 10 council meeting. The council hopes the representative will provide additional information and answer questions.
City officials also toyed with the idea of an alternative by budgeting for a Midway employee to supervise people on probation. The draft budget now includes a probation officer to be paid $10 per hour. City Finance Director Gwen Lowe projected that Midway might capture $45,000 in revenue by supervising probation in-house.
The three council members present, Curtes Roberts, Terrence Doyle and Levern Clancy, all agreed to the compromise on the probation issue.
Regarding the hiring of an additional Midway police officer, the council was split. Doyle and Roberts were in favor; Clancy voted no.
A council workshop had been scheduled for Monday morning to follow the budget hearing, but with Clancy leaving for work and Councilwoman Melice Hamilton unable to attend, there was no quorum. The session was canceled.
