Fewer Hours For Business At The St. Clair County Jail

The service bureau at the St. Clair County jail in Port Huron Township is now seeing fewer hours, due to cuts in the St. Clair County Sheriff Department budget.  The hours are now 8:00 to 5 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 8am to 8 pm on Wednesdays.  Nearly $1 million was cut from the 2013 department’s budget, which resulted in the lay-off of one full-time service bureau agent, who may be made a part-time employee, and five part-time employees, seeing their hours reduced to about 28 hours a week, from their current 35 to 38 hours.  A few other positions saw lay-offs as well.  Under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, anyone who works more than 30 hours a week has to be offered the same benefits as a full-time employee. Another full-time employee working in a support position in the corrections department also was laid off, Buckley said.