DIXON – The Lee County sheriff got half of what he wanted at Tuesday’s County Board meeting: Members voted unanimously to allow the Sheriff’s Department to hire one more road deputy. 

Last fall, Sheriff John Varga asked the board for two more deputies, positions that the county eliminated a few years ago as part of budget cuts. The sheriff has 13 now.

Varga first made his request a month after the board voted to allow then-State’s Attorney Henry Dixon to hire another prosecutor and a clerk. The new state’s attorney, Anna Sacco-Miller, who beat Dixon in the November election, said she didn’t need the positions.