Deb Shay honored at retirement party

EPHRATA — Kari Alder said she always suspected Deb Shay had supernatural powers, back when Shay was a supervisor at the Grant County Jail. When deputies or municipal officers brought in a suspect, Shay could always find the paperwork among the stacks on her desk. She never had to look for it, Alder said.

When the cops brought in a suspect and the staff had no idea who it was, Shay always knew them and the last time they were arrested – and why, Alder said. “I kind of spent my entire career in awe of Deb,” she said.

Shay was the guest of honor at a party celebrating her retirement Thursday afternoon. She worked for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office for 34 years, and part-time for two years before taking the full-time job, she said. She worked for six Grant County sheriffs in her career.

Deb was hired by former sheriff John Young, back in 1982. “Best hire you ever made,” said current Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones. “Just a super phenomenal lady.” Shay has been an integral part of the sheriff’s office, Jones said. When Shay told him she was retiring, he asked for a list of her job duties – and she handed him a list that ran to more than three pages, he said.

Shay finished her career as the administrative assistant to the sheriff; prior to that she was the sergeant in charge of criminal records, said Kyle Foreman, public information officer for the sheriff’s office. “You can rely on her to be a smiling face when you come into the office,’ Foreman said.

“Debbie has always been there,” said sheriff’s office employee Pam Dove, encouraging her and providing support.

Shay said she will miss the sheriff’s office and the people she works with, “my kids,” as she called the deputies and sheriff’s office employees. But her husband Mike is retired, also from a career at the sheriff’s office, and it’s time for a change, she said. “I keep telling everybody I designated 2016 as the year of new beginnings,” she said.

She’s going to “travel and spend time with grandkids,” she said. In fact, Jones said as he gave Shay retirement gifts, he’s heard rumors of a trip to Reno in the near future. It’s a tradition at the sheriff’s office to get up a collection for people at retirement, and the employees chipped in enough to send her to Reno in style, Jones said.

“This means more than you’ll ever know,” an emotional Shay told the crowd, which filled a meeting room at the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office and its employees are like her extended family, she said.

She’s not moving away, she said, and she’s just a phone call away. (But Mike Shay said people should be ready to leave a voicemail when Deb is playing the slots.)

Shay said she owes her career to her husband; he was a reserve deputy, and she tagged along while he worked a Sunday shift, one day back in 1980. It happened to be May 18, 1980, the day the top blew off Mt. St. Helens and a cloud of ash drifted eastward, covering large chunks of Grant County in volcanic ash. Deb and Mike walked out of the sheriff’s office 22 hours later, she remembered. “I was hooked,” she said.

Law enforcement was interesting because it was always something new. “No two days are same,” Shay said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.