Like many employers, both public and private, the Cherokee Judicial Circuit made employee cutbacks last year. But with the help of a Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), District Court Administrator Jody Overcash found a way to gain that position back, at least temporarily.

The circuit had to cut one court clerk position in an effort to save money. Last July, Overcash applied for JAG through the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The circuit was notified in January that they had received the funds, and the Gordon County Board of Commissioners voted to approve those funds last month.

“We are frantically trying to get the paperwork in so we can get the funds,” Overcash said.

Once the funds, about $54,000, are released the department will hire a new clerk for one year to serve in Calhoun.

“Usually clerks only serve for one year,” she said. “They are usually fresh out of law school, and after a year they go on to practice law.”

Overcash said law school is a requirement for the position.

“It isn’t necessary for them to have passed the bar exam,” Overcash said.

This isn’t the first grant Overcash has written; in October the circuit received $23,855 in federal JAG dollars for a part-time drug counselor for the Gordon County Superior Court drug court.

Overcash is currently overseeing 26 programs within the Cherokee circuit, many of them grant related.