It's been a rough couple of days. Monday, the budget commitee for Waupaca County was pondering ways to decrease our inflated budget. I work for Waupaca County water patrol, and this is one of the departmets brought up in the cut, as well as our emergency response unit and our MEG drug unit. Well the final word came to me in a phone call an hour ago, water patrol is going to be eliminated completely, as well as the ERU, the MEG unit, all training, all mobile data computers in the squads, no overtime, as well as all cell phones and pagers for the officers. What dosen't make sense to me though is 1)why cut law enforcement, we are already understaffed, we only run 3 squads per shift for the entire county 2)Water patrol is completely funded by the state except for 23% of our wages, only the county has to front the money,and 3) make some cuts elsewhere in the county, Law enforcement was the only budget cut. With everything going on you would think law enforcement would be a big issue now, but in all reality, money is what does the talking. In good hopes, I have a feeling this will not last long, our main attraction to the area is the Chain 'O Lakes, and without patrol out there it would be absolute chaos, Waupaca County water patrol is ranked the highest in the midwest due to our large boating population and has been around for over 40 years. People pay too much taxes to not have patrol. I guess only time will tell, I've already have had job offers from other counties, but you can't beat this job, I was chosen out of over 500 applicants when I was hired. I have been proud to be a member of one the best water patrol units in the country for over 2 years, and now it's over, kind of a weird feeling.
