The Effingham County Sheriff’s Office is tightening its belt by shrinking its work week.

Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie said the sheriff’s office will go to a four-day, 10-hour week for administrative personnel beginning in June in an effort to cut costs. But that won’t mean a change in the hours that deputies are on patrol on the roads or there are officers at the Effingham County Jail, he said.

“We’re trying to get everybody in administration to participate and stick to it,” he said. “It’s a temporary thing right now. We just want to see if it saves money for the county. If it doesn’t work out like we want it to, we’ll go back to the way we used to do it.”

The sheriff’s office will enact its new hours the week of June 7 and will reassess the schedule after three months. The work week will run from Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. each day. The sheriff’s office will be closed on Fridays, saving on lighting and cooling costs, Sheriff McDuffie pointed out.

Sheriff’s personnel at the Effingham County Judicial Complex will continue to work Fridays. Investigators and crime scene technicians also won’t be in the office on Fridays, though they will remain on call.

“If something happens, we’ll respond to it,” the sheriff said.

McDuffie chose Friday as the day to eliminate since it is the slowest day of the week in terms of calls and office visitors.

“Monday is usually one of our busiest days,” he said.

There are other avenues of saving money, Chief Deputy Richard Bush said, since the personnel not in the office on Fridays won’t be driving cars and burning fuel.

“We’ve always tried to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” McDuffie said. “We look to save money. We use grant money where we can. We confiscate drug dealers’ vehicles and money and that goes to buying equipment and vehicles.”

County departments were asked to cut 10 percent from their budgets, and Sheriff McDuffie is trying to find the budget for a unit dedicated to traffic issues. The ECSO put together a traffic unit as a pilot program in February.

“We got more calls and compliments from people who saw us doing it than complaints from people who got tickets,” he said. “Our goal is to keep people safe and get people from A to Z safely.”

McDuffie said the idea of going to the 4-10 work week was first broached in a staff meeting in February. County commissioners had explored the possibility of a 4-10 work week but did not adopt it last year.

“We’ve been kicking it around for several months,” McDuffie said. “We’ve got some folks who are optimistic about it and some who think it’s not going to work, that it’s going to be a headache. It’s going to take some getting used to.”

Sheriff McDuffie met with county officials to discuss how the change could be enacted, since salaried employees are in the payroll system differently.

“We have to make some changes in our payroll system so they can do it,” County Administrator David Crawley said.

The move is expected to affect about 17-18 sheriff’s office personnel.

“I feel like I’m supposed to be accessible Monday through Friday,” McDuffie said. “If it saves money and helps with the budget, it’s worth it.”