January, a fast start to a New Year!

This year has taken off in a hurry and just like last year, things are moving fast! This month I attended meetings with the C-Net Drug Task Force, the Vernon County Domestic Violence Task Force, the Vernon County Chaplains, business owners from around the county, and of course the Vernon County Commission.

Each time I meet with members of the various groups in our county, I am always impressed at how much they want to be involved and make a difference in so many different areas of our lives. Each group talked about what plans it has for this year and how it hopes to achieve those goals.

It has also been encouraging to see the amount of support and involvement from the businesses and citizens from around the county wanting to support efforts by these groups.

The Vernon County Chaplains were a lot of help throughout the last year in the County Jail and on the road. New ideas of how their services can be utilized even more in the county are under way for this year!

One of the main topics at these meetings is discussing the help that is being provided by the area churches, and groups in the county to help the homeless, transients, and other people in need of immediate help with a wide range of needs.

This month was also budget month and the office was extremely busy with collecting estimates, looking back over last year's costs for anything from water expenses in the jail to how much fuel was used on the road.

The budget process with the County Commissioners was again, a good experience. We have commissioners that care about the county and the needs of the Sheriff's Office. They approved a contract that started this year with Court Money Inc. to allow the Sheriff's Office to accept credit/debit cards, which will be a great service for the citizens who were told in the past that only cash or money orders would be accepted.

This last week employees of the Sheriff's Office attended training on generational birth orders (the study of how each generation is raised and what tendencies they have) which helps deputies work better both with their colleagues and with the citizens they serve, and a lot more training is in the planning process.

Early last year I used a quote from Henry Ford (one of my favorite quotes) that says, "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

I think this is true on every level of our lives, from our personal life at home with our family, to our social, and business lives. We are here in this life that God has placed us in, so let's work together and make it the best one we can.