PARIS – As the date for enacting the Oxford County budget draws nearer, county commissioners have suggested further cuts from the Budget Committee recommendations.

The changes would affect the budgets for the Sheriff’s Office, Oxford County Jail, Regional Communications Center, and Emergency Management Agency and decrease the budget by $132,584.

However, most of the decrease would come as a result of a $112,000 transfer from surplus funds to assist with revenues. The county budgeted surplus transfers of $200,000 in 2005 and 2007 and $100,000 in 2006.

In the Sheriff’s Office, commissioners are proposing minor changes that would reduce the budget by $987. Commissioners previously recommended more than $118,000 be pared from the sheriff’s budget, a suggestion the nine-member Budget Committee rebuffed by recommending a restoration of about $112,000 to the budget.

At the dispatch center, commissioners recommend a decrease of $5,176, of which $5,000 would be provided to professional fees by a matching Homeland Security grant.

At the jail, commissioners have decreased the budget by $4,000. The funds, earmarked for kitchen improvements, will come from an existing capital reserve account for the jail.

The Emergency Management Agency has requested additional hours for staff, a request initially denied by commissioners but approved by the Budget Committee. After review, commissioners recommended that wages for director Scott Parker be increased from a 35-hour week to a 37.5 hour week.

The recommendation falls short of Parker’s request for a 40-hour week and increased hours for an office manager. The budget Parker proposed for the EMA would decrease by $4,863.

Commissioners also approved a slight increase in funds previously allocated to the Oxford County Extension Association. The $95,092 proposed would mark a $9,300 savings from the request of the association and Budget Committee.

The changes reduce the differences between commissioners and the Budget Committee from $85,794 to $24,674 on the roughly $6.2 million budget. Commissioners also projected a decrease of $4,090 in revenues from matching EMA funds.

Commissioners and the Budget Committee will meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the commissioners’ office, where the committee will make its final recommendations.