Grant County sheriff's adds deputy for dunes

EPHRATA - A state grant is allowing the Grant County Sheriff's Office to hire a new deputy and increase maintenance at the Moses Lake sand dunes.

The state restored funding to the Non-highway and Off-road Vehicle Activities grant, after moving money for the program to state parks during the previous biennium.

The sheriff's office received about $200,000 from the two-year grant, according to county records. The money paid for one of the two deputies in the off-road vehicle division.

Money was also used to pay for maintenance, such as cleaning portable toilets, spraying for weeds and fixing fences.

The sheriff's office received $200,000 in an enforcement and education grant and a $49,000 in a maintenance and operations grant to spend during the next two years, Undersheriff Dave Ponozzo said. The county agreed to match the funds, for a total of $259,200 during the next two years.

"We try to split it up so you're spending a half of it each year," Ponozzo said.

The county budgeted to continue some services at the sand dunes during the two years the state didn't award the grant. Ponozzo said the state allowed the money to be used for matching funds.

The grant has a considerable impact on the office and the community as a whole, he said. The dunes attracts people from across the state, and any given weekend of the year it's possible to see motorcycles heading toward the area.

"We've been struggling out there this last year to just have one guy, who was funded through our current expense budget, with no funding from the state at all," he said. "We've been able to manage with few problems if any, but it's better to have the better coverage and more people working it obviously."

Sheriff Tom Jones is in the process of hiring the second deputy for the off-road vehicle division, Ponozzo said.

The bigger impact is the office has money to perform maintenance without the money coming from the current expense fund, he said.

"It'll pay to have the Porta-Pottys cleaned out and available, the Dumpsters cleaned out and available. The weeds sprayed. The fences repaired. Those things out there, which used to be funded by the grant and because of lack of funding we had to let go this last year," he said.

Ponozzo didn't know whether it's been in poor condition, but they haven't been able to perform the same level of upkeep, he said.