SHERIFF VOWS TO FIGHT CUTS

YADKINVILLE -- Sheriff Mike Cain is digging in his cowboy boots and
hunkering down for a fight.

"I found out about I was losing these deputies at the neighborhood hardware
store," Cain said Tuesday afternoon, shaking his head in disgust. "When I
left the meeting Saturday morning, I thought everything was fine. No one
said anything about cutting jobs . . . That really made my red hair red."

Yadkin commissioners say they will not pay for four school resource
officers at the county's elementary schools, which were funded with federal
dollars. The four-year-old federal grant has expired.

Commissioners say they can't afford to pick up the approximate tab of
$100,000 for the four officers. They also asked Cain to cut another $28,000
"clerical" position from his budget.

"The grant money has simply run out," County Manager Cecil Wood said
Tuesday afternoon.

The COPS in Schools grant program funds law enforcement officers who work
to build relationships with schools, using community policing to combat
school violence.

Commissioner Josh Baity of Yadkinville said that school officials could
save the four resource officers. But that would mean a tradeoff with four
locally funded teaching positions.

"You have a choice," Baity said.

Cain said that he intends to fight for the four law officers. He prepared a
letter to send home to parents with school children. But he was told that
would be dabbling in politics.

"(School) administration said no," Cain said. "How is it politics now and
it wasn't four years ago?"

Cain said he was also upset that commissioners didn't tell him Saturday
they intended to eliminate four of his staff.

"I thought the budget was fine . . . There was nothing said about cutting
them during the meeting," Cain said. "My budget was already bare-boned.
I've never busted a budget. I can't cut another $28,000 from the budget."

Eliminating the four school resource officers will reduce response time to
the schools, Cain said, and also scrap the D.A.R.E (Drug Awareness
Resistance Education) and C.A.R.E (Child Abuse Reduction Effort) programs
that resource officers teach to elementary students.

"We reach a lot of kids," Cain said. "Some of these kids never hear this
stuff at home."

Cain said that he has informed the four resource officers they are
scheduled to lose their jobs July 1. But that doesn't mean that he's
prepared to give up the fight. He's already telephoned commissioners to
express his displeasure.

"I told a couple of them they might want to lay their phone off the hook
and put up a gate," Cain said.

And Cain didn't rule out organizing a grassroots effort to change
commissioners' minds. Cain, who was re-elected in November by a landslide
margin to a second term, said the final decision may come from angry
constituents.

"I don't intend to skimp on services. And I'm not going to let the people
down," Cain said, propping his cowboy boots on his desk. "You gotta be a
big boy to play this game. I'm just as big a political man as they are."