ALFRED — Five new corrections officers will soon be working at York County Jail, filling about half the vacancies at the facility.

The hiring, approved by York County commissioners at their meeting Wednesday, is expected to reduce overtime costs by putting more “boots on the ground” at the jail and filling open shifts due to staff vacancies, holidays, vacations and sick time at the 24-hour facility.

The new hires will bring staffing up to 70 or 71 officers, Sheriff Bill King said Wednesday. The jail has 76 positions.

While the officers will begin their employment with the jail on May 23, they won’t be hitting the floor until sometime in July, following several weeks of required training, King said.

“The commissioners concur that is the right thing to do to bring on corrections officers,” said County Manager Greg Zinser. “We support the hiring of corrections officers; they’re the line workers, and it will help with (overtime costs.)”

King has long maintained that hiring full-time workers to fill vacancies would have a significant positive impact on overtime expenses, because overtime is paid at time-and-a-half.

“Last week, we had 90 shifts to cover with overtime,” he said. “I am very pleased the commissioners saw fit to approve the hiring.”

Two years ago, a higher number of vacancies led to corrections staff being mandated to work significant numbers of overtime hours when then-Sheriff Maurice Ouellette declared staffing emergencies on several occasions.

“If someone wants to work overtime, that’s great,” said King. “I just don’t want people ordered in.”

The hiring comes at a time when the jail is facing a significant deficit this year, and is projected to do so again in 2017.

When preparing for the current budget, county officials plugged in $400,000 for jail overtime costs even though they said they knew it wasn’t enough.

The projected deficit by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30 is $700,000, but part of it is expected to be erased by the Legislature’s recent approval of $2.4 million to support the most financially needy of Maine’s 15 county jails.

York County officials recently projected that the York County Jail in Alfred will receive between $300,000 and $350,000 from the new state allocation.

The proposed jail budget for 2017 – the fiscal year that begins July 1 ­– requires a reduction in jail personnel costs by $223,000. The budget is currently in the review process by the county’s budget committee.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.