During Tuesday afternoon’s special-called Christian County Fiscal Court meeting, magistrates approved what many would believe to be a typical, nondescript Christian County Sheriff’s Office budget for 2026.
However, this year’s appropriation brings with it one of the biggest financial changes in department history.
And that’s the shift to a hazardous duty retirement.
Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam called the plan “long overdue for several years.”
Incumbent Sheriff Tyler DeArmond said the process has taken more than 72 months to vet and affirm before this procurement, and he called this first reading and first step “more than needed.”
Gilliam said the county’s budget committee reviewed it, and “wanted to do the right thing.”
DeArmond also called this “a big deal,” and something that “would not go unnoticed,” while Magistrate Russ Guffey said these measures would not have been possible without the research conducted by the Sheriff’s office, which has been seeking ways for this supplement.
Magistrate John Bruce specifically noted that this fiscal court had been reviewing retirement plans for the last three years, with DeArmond joking how he thought he would “stop getting invited to the budget committee meetings.”
Answering Magistrate Magaline Ferguson, DeArmond said the hazardous retirement would kick in at the 25-year mark.
DeArmond noted that non-hazardous retirement comes down to a formula, where age plus time-of-service has to equal 80, and that this would be “a big difference.”
Unfortunately, DeArmond added, it can’t be retroactive, while Gilliam was able to explain the methodology and affordability for this measure.
Magistrate Rich Liebe, who also served Hopkinsville as a former police chief and mayor, said this measure would improve safety in Christian County, because it would help retain the “professionalism and the experience” that it takes to solve crimes and catch criminals in the community.
Bruce added that there’s “no question” it is a hazardous job, because if one makes a stop on Poole Mill Road near Croft, “you’re there all by yourself.”
The budget’s second reading will come at a later date.
