Riley County Police Assistant Director Steve French told the Riley County Law Enforcement Agency Monday that the Department wanted to replace the 106 Smith and Wesson Model 5906 and 6906 hand guns.

French told the Board that the Smith and Wesson company had been sold at a cut rate and the Department was worried about the trade-in value of their weapons. At the present time the weapons are worth more than two hundred dollars but if the value of the company goes down the value of the trade-in may fall too.

French told the Free Press that at one time the Smith and Wesson company had been worth more than $112 million but had sold recently for $15 million.

The Law Board gave the Department permission to spend up to $34,000 on new weapons.

The Law Board put off approving the 2002 Budget until the June meeting. The Department received permission last month to publish the budget and have a public hearing. The hearing was held but action was put off.

Board member and Riley County Commissioner Al Johnson expressed concern about the $9.2 million budget using $331,000 leftover from the 2001 budget. Johnson wants some of that money put into the emergency reserve fund and some returned to the City and County to reduce taxes.

The published budget is $9,252,801.00 up from $8,484,072.00 this year. Personnel will receive $6,005,262.00 which is up from $5,721,824.00 in 2001.

To pay for the $9.2 million budget the City of Manhattan must levy $7,084,744.80; Riley County will levy $1,771,186.20; Manhattan Parking Control Contract will pay $54,920.00; Carryover Funds will be $331,950.47 and Copy Fees Collected should be $9,999.53. All of that adds up to the $9,252,801.00.

Contractual Services will be going up according to the budget. This year Contractual Services Total is $763,034.00 in 2002 that figure will be $865,559.00. The big changes are: Utilities up $30,000; Insurance up $42,000; Rentals, Business Machines up $20,000.

By law the Department can not increase their budget by more that 10%. This budget increase is 9.6%.