Ephrata police chief candidates selected

EPHRATA — Ephrata now has six candidates for police chief.

The city started searching for a new chief to fill the position of Police Chief Joe Varick, who announced he is retiring at the end of this month.

The candidates for the position are: Ephrata police Sgt. Dan Bohnet; Mark Dryer, a retired police captain from Downey, Calif.; Michael Shay, a former Grant County sheriff’s deputy who is an investigator for the Grant County Prosecutor’s Office; Mike Schulte, a captain with the Lebanon, Ore., police; Scott Sterland, who has been a police chief in Wisconsin and in Carnation, Wash; and Michael Warren, who is a lieutenant in the Washington State Patrol.

A seventh candidate, Gary Norvell, a retired lieutenant from Concord, Calif., dropped out of the running for the position.

“There is no favorite going into this,” City Administrator Wes Crago said. “We’re pretty overwhelmed by the quality of the candidates. These are all extremely seasoned officers. Every one of them will be able to do the job at a high degree of quality.”

The candidates were selected out of a pool of 30 applications the city received. A seven-member?committee interviewed 11 of the candidates, Crago said. The committee members are councilmembers  Kathleen Allstot and Ben Davis, Crago, Varick, Ephrata police Officer Patrick Canady, Chris Harrison and Chris Youngberg.

Crago said the committee evaluated several criteria.

“We were definitely looking for people who worked in a command position,” he said. “We looked for community-oriented police experience … We’re looking for communicators.”

Community members will be able to meet the six candidates during an open meeting at 5 p.m. on April 2 in the city council chambers in Ephrata City Hall.

The next day, candidates will be interviewed by the committee, who plan on having a recommendation to the mayor by April 6.

Crago said Bohnet is the next ranking officer and would be in charge of the department until a replacement is selected. Then it depends on the final candidate’s schedule.

“If we need to do something else, we’ve got several different options available,” he said.