Ephrata police promotes new sergeant

EPHRATA — Ephrata Police Chief Mike Warren swore in the department’s newest sergeant Wednesday evening, Ryan Harvey.

Harvey, a nine-year veteran of the Ephrata police, is now one of the department’s four sergeants, in charge of shift and managing some of the city’s 12 officers and two detectives.

“The day I was hired I started working toward this,” said Ryan, a married father of two. “I’ll end up doing a lot more paperwork.”

Harvey, who is 34, grew up in Wenatchee and earned a degree in law and justice from Central Washington University in 2005. According to Warren, Harvey moved to Ephrata to get away from Wenatchee but stay close enough to family in Wenatchee and Chelan.

“He also wanted to be in a small town surrounded by lakes to fish in and places to go hunting,” Warren said.

The chief also gave an award — a “Chief’s Coin” — to Police Capt. Erik Koch for Koch’s work building a special office for police officers to work and hang out in.

“Little did I know at the time that I had an incredible carpenter in my captain,” Warren said. “He devoted hours of sweat labor, much of it he did on his own time. He wanted officers to have a space they could be proud of.”

“I would argue that the officer’s room is the nicest room in the building,” Warren added.

Ephrata’s city hall, which includes its police department, is an old Safeway grocery store that has been converted about 30 years ago to its current purposes.