A creative way to do more for less

Call it a vote for fiscal restraint.

It came last week in Hainesville, where village officials decided to live within their means and replace, rather than expand, the two-year-old police department.

The central Lake County town is going back to contracting out for that service and is ready to begin talks with neighboring Grayslake and the Lake County Sheriff's office.

We know some Hainesville officials and many residents worry about the deal and don't like the idea of ceding such an essential duty to someone else. It'll be up to village officials to craft a contract that meets the community's law enforcement needs.

But we applaud the move to be fiscally conservative in crafting the budget, rather than reactively scrambling to cut costs, personnel and services as so many local governments have been forced to do in the last year.

We also suggest it's not a bad idea for other communities and agencies to examine their own situation to find similar efficiencies.

Under the right circumstances, contracting, sharing and consolidating some services with neighboring governments might be a way to provide taxpayers with a bigger bang for their buck.

The village of Grayslake for years has contracted for many of its public work services, such as snowplowing. And, a handful of small towns, including Long Grove and Volo, contract for police services.

There would seem to be lots of possibilities.

In Hainesville's case, it's not that the police department didn't do the job. On the contrary. By all accounts, its five full-time officers and eight part-timers performed well.

This decision was about saving $300,000 next year, instead of paying more to transition the department out of startup mode. It comes at a time when village officials expect a balanced 2010-11 budget with revenue of $2.92 million and worry about the reliability of state funding.

Police Chief Wallace Frasier estimated it would cost $1.1 million to keep the police department next year. Most of that figure stemmed from personnel costs and moving from cramped space in village hall to a rented building, he said.

Grayslake is offering complete police service to Hainesville for $711,782, including creating a fifth patrol beat to cover the village. The Lake County Sheriff's contract would cost $791,566, with one deputy assigned exclusively to the village.

A contract arrangement will allow Hainesville to avoid directly taking on the overhead costs of a full-time police department.

The village can also take advantage of police services it doesn't have now, such as detectives to conduct investigations, K-9 units and evidence storage facilities.

More services at a lower cost - sounds like a deal to us.