HERMANN — Working shorthanded essentially all this year, the Gasconade County Sheriff's Department will again ask for enough funding for a 12-person staff.

That’s according to Major Roger Armstrong, chief deputy to Interim Sheriff Scott Eiler. Armstrong Thursday morning told the County Commission that Eiler will seek a budget that funds a dozen officers. The department now has eight staffers, Armstrong said, adding that two more deputies could be hired by year’s end.

That would leave the agency short by two deputies. This year’s budget has funding for 12 people, but Sheriffs John Romanus and Mark Williams left the office this year unable to fill the vacancies created by departures caused by law enforcement agencies elsewhere offering higher pay.

Armstrong said the department is hoping to hire two new deputies soon.

“This would be a good opportunity to snatch these guys up and put us closer” to having 12 officers, including the sheriff and his chief deputy.

Meanwhile, Armstrong told the Commission that a contract has been offered for prisoner lodging in Osage County. Gasconade County will use Osage as a back-up if more than five county residents are housed while awaiting trial. Crawford County will remain the primary site for housing prisoners. Crawford is guaranteeing five beds to Gasconade County.

“We pay for those beds, whether filled or not,” noted Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore of Owensville.

The counties will charge Gasconade County $40 a day per prisoner. The state reimburses counties about $23 a day, but historically is late in making reimbursement payments. In recent years, that has resulted in the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department’s Jail Fund being depleted before the end of the year.

The chief deputy also told the Commission the new computers purchased with CARES Act funds have been installed in the patrol cars. “Everything’s up and running,” Armstrong said.

Also at Thursday’s session, Coroner-elect Jeff Arnold told the Commission that various pieces of office equipment and furniture have been obtained through the state surplus program. Arnold will be working out of his home in Owensville rather than from an office in the Sheriff’s Department building in Swiss, as originally planned by the Commission.

“We’re moving right along,” Arnold said.

Arnold and the other county officeholders beginning a term on Jan. 1 will be given the oath of office on Wednesday, Dec. 30, at 10 a.m. The oath is scheduled to be administered by Circuit Court Associate Judge Ada Brehe-Krueger.

The Commission will meet that day, also, but will not have a session during Christmas Week. The Dec. 30 session will provide the opportunity to hold the initial 2021 budget hearing. That’s also the last day the county can write checks on the CARES Act fund. The federal government set Dec. 30 as the deadline to allocate CARES Act money. Any unspent money must be returned to the federal treasury.

Also on that date, the commissioners will meet at the Road Department to put finishing touches on that agency’s 2021 operating budget.

County government offices will be open on Christmas Eve. State government is giving its employees the day off and that prompted a discussion about county employees.

“I think we need to do what we’ve always done,” Lairmore said. Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland of Hermann agreed.