It was a sad day on Sept. 22 when Sgt. Kerry Winters passed away in the line of duty.

Winters was a 31-year veteran of the corrections division of the Ulster County Sheriff's Office and a 15-year veteran of the Ulster county Sheriff’s Office dive team.

According to the Daily Freeman, when Winters passed away last month during a water training exercise, his family was not given survivor insurance benefits. Those benefits would have been given to the other members of the team but not Winters because he was a corrections officer, not a deputy sheriff.

That will hopefully change thanks in part to Ulster County Executive Michael Hein and Ulster county Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum. They have both gotten behind a resolution that will extend benefits to Winters wife and two sons for 18 months.

The 18 months of continued health insurance is what the families of all sheriff’s deputies who die in the line of duty are entitled to under their contract with the Ulster County but the corrections contract is different and doesn't have the same agreement.

County Executive Heinn told the Freeman that providing the Winters family with medical coverage for the next 18 months would cost the county $60,908.

This will go in front of the county Legislature in November.

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