Commissioner Crosby Allen said the fund would provide money for use exclusively in costly search and rescue efforts and criminal investigations.
Sheriff Larry Mathews called the fund a "fantastic idea" in light of the costly search and investigation into Amy Wroe Bechtel's recent disappearance.
Only weeks before Bechtel disappeared in the mountains above Lander, Mathews had complained to the county commission about the unpredictability of law enforcement that caused him to go over budget last year.
On Tuesday, he provided figures from the Bechtel search to show the commission the impact it's had on the sheriff's department.
Department employees have put in 342 hours of overtime for the search itself, Mathews said. There is no overtime allotment built into the department's budget to cover $4,200 he figured the search cost.
In addition to the search, the sheriff's department was inundated with phone calls after Bechtel disappeared, Mathews said. Instead of between 25 and 75 calls each hour, he said his staff was answering about 1,000 calls an hour.
Commissioner Tom Satterfield said the commissioners had a discretionary fund, which he called "highly effective," for eight years until it was removed two years ago.
But commissioners said before incorporating it into next year's budget, they wanted the fund's name changed to reflect its restricted use.
Meanwhile, the search for Bechtel, 25, has failed to turn up any clues.
Bechtel disappeared after leaving her Lander home to go jogging near the Loop Road in the Shoshone National Forest on July 24.
More than 100 people spent more than a week searching the forest for signs of her, but they turned up no leads. Local authorities have declared it a criminal investigation and have received help from the state and the FBI.
Authorities have searched her home and her husband Steve's pickup truck looking for evidence to explain her disappearance.