With Lincoln County facing a $250,000 budget shortfall for nextyear, you can almost bet that nerves on that side of the GovernmentComplex are raw.

With Lincoln County facing a $250,000 budget shortfall for nextyear, you can almost bet that nerves on that side of the GovernmentComplex are raw. Tensions will remain high was officials decidewhat areas to cut before the new budget takes effect on Oct. 1.

To recap some of the budget woes, the new county jail –originally estimated to cost $3.2 million — has come in at $3.4million. The county will pay over $1 million in equipment andpersonnel costs to prepare to return to the beat system this fall.After that expense, it is estimated that each of the fivesupervisor beats will have somewhere between $230,000 and $285,000for such items as fuel, gravel and asphalt. That’s it. That moneywill have to last the entire fiscal year. We suggest that if youhave a road need, you make your request early.

Some tough decisions lie ahead for the Lincoln County Board ofSupervisors, other county officials and county budget writers.While the news of recent weeks has not been good as far as dollarsgo, we applaud these officials for having not one — but several –open meetings to discuss the budget.

In fact, the supervisors rarely go into an executive session todiscuss anything. That’s the way it should be. They are servants ofthe public, conducting the business of taxpayers.

The Brookhaven Board of Aldermen have scheduled a public meetingfor Saturday, Aug. 26, at 9 a.m. for budget discussions and openlydiscussed budget issues at Tuesday’s meeting. We applaud them forfollowing the lead of the supervisors, and we hope they continuethis “open door” policy.