The news was good for the Leelanau County Sheriff's Department following last week's Leelanau County Board of Commissioners meeting.

As part of the consent agenda at its regular monthly meeting the evening of July 17, the board endorsed a letter of agreement between the county and Empire Township for “supplemental law enforcement services” to be provided to the township this summer.

As part of the agreement, the township is paying the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department $1,100 to provide a “part-time, seasonal” sheriff’s deputy devoted to patrolling Empire Township. Previously, some $10,000 had been paid by the Village of Empire for extra services provided by a Leelanau County Sheriff’s Deputy.

The board last week also sold two old Leelanau County police vehicles to a Williamsburg man who offered the highest bids for the vehicles. Six other individuals or used car companies offered to buy the 2003 Crown Victoria police cruisers from the county. The high bids were for $2,426 and $2,576.

“I can’t remember when we’ve ever gotten a higher amount for old vehicles,” commented county board chairman and District No. 6 commissioner Robert Hawley.

In other business, the county board:

• Voted 6-0, with District No. 2 commissioner Mark Walter absent, to “not include” in a proposed budget for 2008 a request for an additional $8,826 in funding from a regional community corrections program. Hawley and other commissioners had questioned whether the program, administered from Grand Traverse County, had been “living within its means.” They decided to provide no additional funding for the program without receiving specific cost information from program administrators.

• Appointed Walter as a delegate, and District No. 3 commissioner Will Bunek as an alternate delegate, to attend the 61st Annual Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan conference in Kalamazoo in September.

• Appointed Empire resident Jay S. Johnson to fill a vacancy on the county Planning Commission. Johnson is a retired federal executive who has also served on the Benzie-Leelanau Environmental Health Board of Appeals.

• Approved a routine resolution endorsing the Fiscal Year 2008 Annual Implementation Plan of the Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Michigan.