Department of Social Services Director Sandra Wilkes said the two new agents could collect an additional $540,000 a year in child support payments for Rowan County children.

“I think we would have very, very good results,’’ Wilkes said.

The child support agents now on staff simply cannot get to a backlog of cases in which absent or delinquent parents are paying no child support, Wilkes said. The new agents would be taking cases not even being addressed, she said.

The two new positions will cost the county $27,210 total in salaries and equipment. Federal funds cover 66 percent of the costs.

Commissioners voted 3-2 for the two new agents and a 1.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment for all county employees, instead of the 1.7 percent adjustment recently approved in the 1999-2000 budget.

The county had an unallocated balance of $69,483 after a final budget was approved earlier this month. County Manager Tim Russell returned to commissioners Tuesday night proposing to use the surplus toward a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment and the two new positions for Social Services.

Commissioners voted down 3-2 a motion by Commissioner Steve Blount to go with Russell’s proposal. Commissioners J. Newton Cohen, Dave Rowland and Frank Tadlock voted against it. Commissioners Arnold Chamberlain and Blount favored the action.

Tadlock changed his vote on a subsequent Blount motion that called for a 1.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment, after he received assurances from Russell that the budget would have enough money to meet the new expenses.

Rowland said he voted against both motions because the overall 1999-2000 budget remained “out of sight,” and the proposals represented more excess spending. Because of revaluation, Rowan County taxpayers will be hit with their biggest increase ever, Rowland said.

Rowland added that he wasn’t convinced the two new child support agents would bring in the money Wilkes said they would.

Cohen expressed concern about using up the small surplus that commissioners had left themselves in the final budget.

“There won’t be any money the rest of the year,” Cohen said. “It’s all gone.”

Chamberlain asked Wilkes twice whether she was assuring commissioners that two new positions would lead to hundreds of thousands of extra dollars being collected in Rowan County over the next year.

Wilkes said yes. She also emphasized that new two agents could mean more incentive payments being paid into the county’s general fund because the county will show a better record of collections.

Before Wilkes left, Cohen said her department’s new child protection personnel were doing a great job, but their work also has led to more children who need institutionalized care at an enormous cost to the county.

Some children going to special institutions are costing the county $8,000 a month, Cohen said. When he was younger, many of the same problem children would be sent to the state’s Jackson Training School, he said. Couldn’t judges making decisions in these cases funnel more children to Jackson, Cohen asked.

Wilkes acknowledged that her department faces a big problem in addressing the needs of children who are, for example, sexually abused or have broken the law themselves. Judges order that many of these children be sent to high-dollar, “therapeutic” facilities that can cost as much as $350 a day for room and board. While Medicaid pays for the treatment, the county is responsible for room and board.

An alternative would be the development of “therapeutic” foster homes, Wilkes said, but training would prove costly. Judges often order the therapeutic alternative over training school, Wilkes said.

Tadlock said he understands that 17 to 21 children a month are requiring specialized care — a number that Wilkes did not dispute.