Wahkiakum County commissioners said Tuesday that the county will cut its staff by nearly 10 percent to plug a $1.25 million budget shortfall.

The cuts include two sheriff’s deputies, one of whom has been stationed at the county’s three schools, Sheriff Dan Bardsley said.

“I’ve been here since 1979. We’ve never had this kind of financial difficulties,” Bardsley said. “It’s gonna hurt. There’s no getting around that.”

Commissioner George Trott said the county, which has suffered financially for years, has reached a tipping point where it would be treacherous to continue to operate without cuts.

“Our services may suffer for a while,” Trott said. But “I just had a feeling if we kept on this track and we have no ability to pay this debt back, you’ll be at a point where you’ll just totally have to devastate the county, and that’s not the position I want to be in.”

Commissioners said the county, which employs 87 people, will cut seven full-time positions and reduce four positions to part-time. The cuts are expected to go into effect Nov. 1.

Bardsley said the Sheriff’s office, which will now have eight law enforcement officials on patrol, will take longer to respond to calls. Deputies, he said, will be more likely to rush from call to call rather than patrol the county’s roads.

“We’ll still answer all of our complaints. We just might get to them less quickly than we would have,” Bardsley said.

Trott declined to disclose which additional positions would be eliminated, saying the cuts are contingent on negotiations with the county’s unions and that the affected employees had not yet been notified.

It was not yet clear if the cuts would be enough to offset the deficit, Trott said. He said the county will probably have to borrow money to balance this year’s budget as well as next year’s.

“We’re still looking at that,” he said.

The shortfall blindsided commissioners this year after it became clear that a key timber sale, the county’s chief source of revenue, would yield far less than expected.

Commissioners said the Department of Natural Resources, which manages the county’s timberlands, overstated the revenue the county would receive from the so-called “Between Cougar Rose” timber sale by more than $730,000.

In addition, timber prices fell by more than 40 percent over the last year. The county’s investment returns withered after the Fed cut interest rates. And criminal justice revenue, which comes from the state and is funded by the real estate excise tax, plummeted by $200,000 as the housing market cooled.

The commissioners say their budget reserves have been dwindling for years because the state has locked up about 3,000 of its 13,000 timber acres to protect and study the marbled murrelet, an endangered shorebird.

Commissioner Dan Cothren complained Tuesday that the county could be self-sufficient if the state would simply stop meddling with the management of its natural resources. State officials cut short the Chinook salmon season on the Columbia River this year, he said, dealing yet another blow to the tiny county’s economy.

“None of us here in Wahkiakum County are looking for a free ride,” Cothren said. “Let us use our resources here and we will be fine.”

Cothren said he is trying to work out a deal with the Legislature that would allow the county to offset the losses wrought by the murrelet program.

Under the deal, he said, the state would reimburse the county for the restrictions on its timber. The county would then set some of that money aside to balance its general fund. The balance, Cothren said, would be used to buy additional timber lands, which would in turn provide extra revenues.

“Right now, Wahkiakum County’s so dependent on timber, we have to do this,” he said. “We just need to build a timber base or we’re not going to survive.”

Related articles:

Wahkiakum County outlines plan to deal with budget woes  (Aug. 6)

Budget woes may force Wahkiakum County to cut staff  (July 27)