A path into the future seems clearer for the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force.

A large Strike Force grant appears to be going down drastically in the short term, but stimulus money should supplement the reduced grant this year, according to Sheriff Mike Strong and the Missouri Department of Public Safety. And for 2010, the U.S. Congress has restored that grant funding to normal levels.

The Strike Force had suffered years of federal cutbacks through the federal Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.

Mr. Strong had committed to contingency plans to trim down the Strike Force and roll its staff into his department rather than let it dissolve. Though Mr. Strong said it wasn’t related, some Strike Force investigators had transferred to positions within the Sheriff’s Department in recent months.

Mr. Strong said he’s quite pleased to see that drastic changes are not in store.

“We didn’t want to cut half our (Strike) force,” Mr. Strong said.

On the surface, things appeared dire two weeks ago.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety informed Buchanan County that it would only receive $74,466 for the year beginning in July. That would have been one-fourth of this year’s funding — $297,864.

But the state will award federal stimulus money through competitive grants in the next couple months, said Public Safety spokesman Mike O’Connell.

“The feeling is that the stimulus will make up that three-fourths shortfall,” Mr. O’Connell said.

As for permanent funding, Missouri’s available Byrne grants had dwindled to $2.2 million for this year. In 2010, the state grant pool should be around $6.5 million, Mr. O’Connell said.

“The feeling is this money will stabilize and basically put things back to where they were,” he said.

In 2008, the Strike Force operated on about $918,087, including salaries, benefits and operations. Of that, $270,609 came from the Byrne grant. In 2003, expenses were $851,342, with the Byrne grant covering $288,051, according to figures from Buchanan County Auditor Nancy Nash’s office.

Joe Blumberg can be reached at joeblumberg@npgco.com.