Floyd County Sheriff Shannon Zeman continues to lose deputies to other jurisdictions. Two deputies have resigned in recent months to join the Christiansburg Police Department.

Why? Better pay, better equipment, etc.  Deputies are among the lowest paid county employees, a sad situation for someone who risks his life to enforce the laws of the county.

State Troopers stationed in Floyd make more and they don’t work around the clock (troopers are on call for late night situations). Even a West Virginia State trooper starts out at close to $25,000  a year.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors needs to address the problem but they won’t. The county is, for all practical purposes, broke and living, like too many county employees, from paycheck to paycheck. School teachers in the county, also among the lowest paid, had their cost of living raises this year cut from six to three percent and I’ve talked with more than one teacher who says the higher salaries of neighboring school districts are tempting.