MONTICELLO – The 2013 Sullivan County budget adopted last week cuts two vacant deputy positions and that brings the department down a total of nine.

Sheriff Michael Schiff said while he continues to work with county lawmakers in an effort to bring up his ranks, current staffing levels will negatively impact his operations.

“That may affect our ability to be in the schools and do the other things we are being called up and also at a time where the overdoses with the heroin and the drugs becoming an epidemic lately and have been for quite some time, it really stretches us thin,” Schiff said.

The Road Patrol Division of the sheriff’s office has approximately 35 members at the present time and includes all officers with the exception of the Civil Division and Corrections Division at the county jail.