August 21, 2024
ISSUE 34
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Unincorporated Pierce County crashes down despite smaller traffic unit By Spencer Pauley The Center Square
Despite a drop in staffing in the Pierce County Sheriff ’s Department’s Traffic Unit, safety on unincorporated county streets has improved over 2023. The Pierce County Sheriff ’s Department had to cut 12 full-time law enforcement positions as part of required budget cuts in the 2024-2025 budget. This saved the county approximately $4.3 million. The majority of the vacant positions eliminated stem from the traffic unit. The Pierce County Traffic Unit currently has eight full-time commissioned department members. Despite a drop in staffing in the Pierce County Sheriff ’s Department’s Traffic Unit, safety on unincorporated county streets has improved over 2023. The Pierce County Sheriff ’s Department had to cut 12 full-time law enforcement positions as part of required budget cuts in the 2024-2025 budget. This saved the county approximately $4.3 million. The majority of the vacant positions eliminated stem from the traffic unit. The Pierce County Traffic Unit currently has eight full-time commissioned
Adobe Stock department members. The restoration of the funding for the eliminated positions is the traffic unit’s top priority for the 20242025 supplemental budget. In 2023, there were 8,098
motor vehicle collisions in unincorporated parts of Pierce County. So far in 2024, there have been 4,591. A decrease of 43%. The number of fatal collisions in unincorporated
Pierce County has also dropped this year from 24 in 2023 to 10 so far in 2024. The majority of the fatalities so far this year were attributed to driving while under the influence.
The statistics presented to the public safety committee on Monday do not include fatalities that occurred on state highways. CRASHES, Page 3 Æ
Republican Rohrer leads Pierce County Council District 6 race following primary By Spencer Pauley The Center Square
Results from the August Primary Election reveal incumbent Pierce County Council District 6 Councilmember Jani Hitchen faces a tough challenge from Republican Loujanna “LJ” Rohrer, who leads all
candidates for the county council seat. According to the latest election results, Rohrer leads all District 6 candidates with 47.2% of collected votes. Hitchen, a Democrat, is trailing with 41.1%, and fellow Democrat Danny Hankins collected 11.6% of tallied votes. Rohrer, a senior legislative assistant
for the State House of Representatives, said she feels good about the primary results but feels that she has a lot of work to do. “What the results show is that people are not satisfied with the incumbent,” Rohrer said to The Center Square in a phone call. Rohrer will have to convince the 11.6% of Hankins supporters not to choose the incumbent Hitchen in the November Election, which she says she is confident she can do. The top concern Rohrer is hearing from her constituents is the increasing cost of living, especially housing costs. She said she wants to look at
where spending is being made as Pierce County revenues continue to increase and figure out what residents are prioritizing for where generated revenue goes. General fund revenues for Pierce County increased 2.5% from $875 million in the 2022-2023 budget to $896.7 million in the 2024-2025 budget. The two leading candidates differ on how to address affordable housing, with Rohrer saying that the county needs to step back and look at how to efficiently spend tax dollars. ELECTION, Page 3 Æ