VAST vows to make do with less

SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s Victim Advocate Services Team intends to provide the same level of service despite losing a position to budget cuts.

Bonner County’s $47.4 million budget provided funding for two VAST caseworkers, one less than the department has been operating with.

VAST provides assistance to sex crime and domestic abuse victims. It caseworkers respond to calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week anywhere in the county. It also offers outreach and education on domestic and teen violence issues in schools and the community.

Peggy Sherbon, VAST’s supervisor, and Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall remain optimistic that VAST can make do with less funding.

“With internal restructuring, Louis and I are confident we can keep our services  at the same level without jeopardizing the safety and care of victims in our community,” said Sherbon, a domestic violence case coordinator at the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office.

VAST was in danger of shuttering last year after it was cut out of a federal grant application. But VAST supporters, law officers and crime victims rallied to save the service, which prompted county commissioners to include VAST in the budget and create a permanent department.

To maintain staffing levels in 2010 in light of declining revenues, commissioners appealed to the three cities which generate the most call volumes — Sandpoint, Ponderay and Priest River — to assist in funding VAST.

Commissioner Lewis Rich said the requests found support with law enforcement in those jurisdictions, but encountered push-back from city councils, which are facing some of the same funding struggles as the county.

Some city officials shot down the requests as “double taxation,” said Rich, a view which he disagrees with.

“I don’t understand why we couldn’t get help from those three cities,” he said.

Commissioners adopted the budget on Wednesday.

Commissioner Cornel Rasor, a Sandpoint businessman who took office in January, said his first experience minding the county budget was not overly complicated when it came to crunching the numbers.

“The complication comes when making a decision on what stays and what goes,” Rasor said.