Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman and Winston-Salem Police Chief Scott Cunningham are dickering over $1.1 million in federal stimulus money. Cunningham ran a 75-25 split up the flagpole, and Schatzman countered with a 50-50-split, if not all of it.
Note that Cunningham says his share of the fed money would go partly toward putting together the department’s SRO bid for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Down the road in Guilford County, school board member Amos Quick raised cutting back on SROs as a budget-saving measure. Quick also mentioned the fact that other school systems are bidding SRO contracts, and perhaps GCS could look into that as well.
With that in mind, it will be interesting see how the bidding process plays out in Forsyth. Meanwhile, the Winston-Salem Journal weighs in on Schatzman’s bid for another $6.6 million in fed money, saying county commissioners “should let the sheriff apply for the money. But he should understand that when the federal grants expire he may have to downsize his force.”
