White County Sheriff-Elect Rick Kelley

(Cleveland)- The White County Board of Commissioners is putting money where their mouth is as far as supporting our local law enforcement.  Monday during a commission work session and voting meeting the board approved over 323-thousand dollars in spending for the White County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff-elect Rick Kelley made the request for the department on behalf of Sheriff Neal Walden, who also attended the meeting.  

The county will be utilizing Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds to purchase six new vehicles, (5 SUVs and a pickup truck)  along with equipment for those vehicles, 24- laptop computers for every patrol vehicles and two ballistic shield panels for security purposes at the White County Courthouse. 

Commission Chairman Travis Turners summed up the investment for the protection of citizens, ” I just quickly ran my calculator, we just approved funding the sheriff’s Department expense items totaling $323,723 so I’m going to brag on the county, as far as the county, we want to make it know we support out sheriff’s Department”.   

Kelley also requested additional funding for an Information Technology position for the department, but the commissioners said they wanted to see they can utilize current county IT personnel to fill that need.