Hello Maries County, I would like to take a moment to update you on what we have accomplished one month into office.
Since taking office, I have been busy recovering and accounting for all Sheriff’s Office equipment as well as reworking the budget to be fiscally responsible. During the budget process it was discovered my administration would have to incur approximately $50,000 of unpaid bills that were accrued during the previous administration. This is in addition to the $100,000 amount that dispatch was over budget in 2024. I have made many cuts to the Sheriff’s Office budget for 2025 and placed an emphasis on training our staff and maintaining our current equipment.
I have received a lot of questions regarding how many staff members stayed with the Sheriff’s Office and I am happy to report most of the staff decided to stay. We had 2 dispatchers that chose to leave and very few deputies that actually worked the road left. At no time was there a lapse in road or dispatch coverage in my transition. We have hired some dispatchers and jailers to staff the 911 center as well as the jail. I have not hired any new paid deputies and I brought on some reserve deputies to help out.
There was a decision made to shut down our jail in September of 2024 and to start housing our inmates in other jails which led to some very expensive boarding bills. The jail had some safety concerns I wanted to address and such much needed painting while it was unoccupied. Approximately 2 weeks into my administration the jail repairs and painting were completed and our jail has been reopened. Reopening the jail prevents the county from incurring any more of the expensive jail bills from other agencies as well as eliminating added fuel and transportation costs to the county.
Another issue I wanted to address was improving training specifically for our jail staff. On January 28th, 2025, Missouri Sheriff’s Association sent an instructor to host a 1-day jail training class just for our staff members. Additionally, scheduled in February we have a First Aid and CPR training that will be held at the Sheriff’s Office. For the safety of everyone housed in our jail and all folks that we interact with, all Sheriff’s Office staff are required to complete this training.
When I came into office, I was informed our computer that we issue CCW permits on was not working. We now have a working CCW computer and are issuing new or renewing permits. We also have UTV permits available at the Sherriff’s Office in Vienna and you can now buy Maries County UTV permits at Belle City Hall if you live on that side of the county.
To better serve our communities effective February 1st Belle Police Department is being dispatched by our Maries Counties 911 center. It has been a very long time since Belle PD was dispatched by Maries County and I look forward to what we will accomplish in the coming months.
I am glad to say that I have had great conversations with our Fire and EMS agencies and look forward to continuing to expand on this going forward. By working together and having open lines of communication with all of our agencies, we will be able to continue to improve our service to the county as a whole.
None of this would have been possible without the dedication, passion, patience, and most of all support of our staff and the communities we serve. I cannot express my gratitude for them enough, without them none of this would have been possible.
Sheriff Mark D. Morgan
