_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Del Norte Probation Department}

Though his department has an overall vacancy rate of 33%, Lonnie Reyman said Del Norte County probation will be screening more than 20 potential new recruits.

The county’s probation chief offered this ray of optimism as part of an otherwise complex budget report to the Board of Supervisors on Monday. 

Probation and Re-entry Services, which includes the Youth Opportunity Center and detention services, is also expecting an uptick in the number of juvenile offenders that are in custody and are expecting the cost to house them to increase, he said.

Two years after receiving nearly $3 million in Prop. 64 grant money, Del Norte’s probation chief will enlist the County Office of Education to help figure out how to use those dollars to benefit local youth.

Del Norte County Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman said he hopes to develop programs centered around youth,substance abuse prevention and early intervention as well as treatment and rehabilitation. 

Since the grant dollars come from the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act approved by California voters in 2016 as Proposition 64, the programs will focus on marijuana, he said.