It's one of those problems that keeps grinding along -- a too-tight Grayson County Sheriff's Office budget.

"It's not a crisis," Sheriff David Simon said Thursday after a special-called Fiscal Court meeting where he asked the court for a $61,372 loan to keep county law enforcement at current levels.

The court approved the loan, which included just over $25,000 to meet payroll and $36,000-plus to make past loan payments.

Simon assured magistrates his office was cutting expenses in every area available to them, "but some of those expenses are out of our control."

He said costs for vehicle maintenance had increased by nearly $25,000 over previous years, because vehicles are old, have high mileage and are driven almost constantly.

"This year," he said, "gas prices alone have required an outlay of $35,000, much higher than previous years."

"Is there any other source of funds besides regular revenues," asked 6th District Magistrate Curtis Wells.

Simon said grants were a possible source, "but we didn't get much from that source last year." He said there are federal funds available to pay for officer overtime -- something in the neighborhood of $10,000.

The officer workloads and overtime are stemming from a growing population in the county, Simon said.

He presented an Emergency-911 log of calls for 2004, one that recorded 12,234 calls that required some kind of response from deputies or policemen. "And that number doesn't reflect the calls that come directly into the Sheriff's Office," he said.

"It doesn't matter who the sheriff is," Simon said, "this problem is going to grow, simply because we have more people, which, in turn, increases our workload."

He said the county population is at its 2005 level, but people and equipment at the Sheriff's Office "is still back in about 1985."

Another problem, he said, is that his office cannot depend as much as it has in the past on the State Police, "because they've had to cut back, too, and this increases our overtime as we try to respond to all those calls."

The fiscal court approved the loan, but tabled the sheriff's new budget that starts July 1. Judge-Executive Gary Logsdon said magistrates needed some time to go over the budget before its regularly scheduled meeting January 18.

"We need to look at the budget to see whether or not there are steps we can take to make sure the loans don't become a monthly thing," Logsdon said.

Projections handed in from the sheriff indicated they would be.

In descending order, here are the numbers of calls coming in through Dec. 5, 2004 to E-911 that involve law enforcement. (Numbers do not include non-police calls nor direct calls to the sheriff.):

Information................3,092

Serve court papers....1,551

Traffic complaints.....1,161

Records checks.........1,065

Traffic stops.................850

General complaints......665

Traffic accidents..........374

Hangup calls.................334

Criminal investigation..310

Traffic complaints........223

Reckless driving...........207

Domestic violence........193

Meal break....................192

Assist motorist.............189

Transport prisoners.....171

Prisoner in custody.......160

Injury accident.............131

Burglar alarm................154

DUI complaint...............123

ATV/Golf cart call.........100

Extra patrols...................90

Drug traffic.....................87

Juvenile complaints.......76

Check on welfare............74

Car inspection................53

Gas drive-off...................43

Mental case ...................40

Police escort..................34

Prowler............................32

Fights..............................27

Complaints on drunks....13

Shoplifting........................4

School traffic....................2