MANCHESTER — The city this week picked up the cost of retaining a full-time domestic violence prosecutor to handle the estimated 800 to 900 cases that go through Ninth Circuit Court each year now that the county attorney’s office ceased funding the post.

A $30,000 annual grant that the Mary Gale Foundation gave the city Tuesday is among several funding sources city officials cobbled together to pay the specialized prosecutor’s estimated $115,000 annual salary and benefits, they said.

A federal grant should bring in another $30,000 to $35,000 and the city is poised to pick up the balance through the community improvement program process, deputy city solicitor Thomas Arnold said.

The $30,000 award will target those who prey on aging, frail or indigent women, in compliance with the Mary Gale Foundation’s charitable mission to serve aging and needy women in greater Manchester, foundation trustee Patrick M. Tufts said.

“We...heard a couple of times that the (prosecutor’s) position was in jeopardy. We found out a large percentage of domestic violence cases are against the elderly and the elderly are a very frail population. That is of great interest to the Mary Gale Foundation,” Tufts said.

“If — in working with the domestic violence prosecutor — cases get prosecuted against people who mistreat the elderly, that message will be out there that this vulnerable population needs to be protected,” Tufts said.

According to Arnold, the Manchester police department’s domestic violence unit — which deals with all types of domestic-related violence — handles an estimated 800 to 900 a cases a year.

The Mary Gale Foundation said 236 of the total 1,357 domestic violence cases reported by Manchester police in 2011 involved women over 50 years old. And the YWCA New Hampshire reports working with 457 seniors victims, the foundation said in a statement.

Hillsborough County Attorney Dennis C. Hogan said budget cuts forced the county to cease funding the position when the 2012 fiscal year ended last Saturday.

The county has been using grants funneled through its office — and not county taxpayer money — to pay the prosecutor’s salary for the last year, Hogan said. It ceased all funding as of July 1, he said.

Assistant County Attorney Andrea Lamy, who prosecuted domestic violence cases for Hillsborough County, went from being a county employee on Saturday to a temporary full-time prosecutor in the city solicitor’s office on Sunday, Arnold said.

“We are in the process of hiring a prosecutor, but we have kept on the current prosecutor (Lamy) as a temporary employee pending the hiring process,” Arnold said. Lamy is one of many candidates who applied for the job, he said.

Mayor Ted Gatsas supports funding the new position, saying the city must have a prosecutor for the hundreds of domestic violence cases it handles. “We have to do it,” Gatsas said.

If the city is unable to piece together funding from federal, private and city sources to continue paying for the position next year, it may have to finance it through general funds, Gatsas said.

“I think we would have to continue funding (the post) in the future because who is going to handle these cases?” the mayor asked.

kmarchocki@unionleader.com