Sheriff proposes special deputy to cover port

MOSES LAKE — Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones is proposing to hire an additional deputy to patrol the Port of Moses Lake.

The catch is he wants to the Port to pay for it.

Speaking during a study session prior to a regular Monday meeting of the Port of Moses Lake Commission, Jones said that with crime up in the Larson community, it would help to have a full-time sheriff’s deputy help regularly patrol the port.

“It would create a positive relationship, faster response times, and personal interaction,” Jones told commissioners.

Jones said there were roughly 14,000 calls for service in Grant County in 2017, with 2,663 of those calls — about one in five — coming from the Larson community.

“That’s a lot for an entire county,” he said.

Jones said hiring an additional deputy to patrol the Port would cost around $113,000 per year, and an additional $60,000 to equip (including a vehicle). The sheriff said he was “willing to absorb that entire cost of equipping a deputy” if the Port would pick up the cost of hiring.

The deputy would help patrol the perimeter of the Port, follow up on investigations of theft and vandalism, and help with Larson in the event of an emergency. The GCSO has a substation in the Larson community.

“We are always on Larson,” Jones said.

However, Jones said there wasn’t a lot of spillover from Larson onto the Port, or onto Big Bend Community College either, for which the CGSO is also responsible. In fact, the sheriff said the Port of Moses Lake is “surrounded by a lot of calls.”

Currently, Jones said the GCSO frequently escorts high-profile guests who fly into the Grant County International Airport to perform at The Gorge.

A single full-time deputy would not provide full-time coverage, however.

“Several tenants have asked for this — SGL, Terex — to mitigate insurance costs,” said Kim DeTrolio, finance director for the Port of Moses Lake. “One (deputy) to start would help deter what we’re seeing — trespassers, doors pulled open.”

DeTrolio said the port has an extra $170,000 in its budget, enough to pay for a deputy.

However, the commissioners did not vote on the matter, and said they would likely hear other security proposals at future meetings. Commissioner Darrin Jackson, who was elected commission president for 2019, said that as an unpaid sheriff’s deputy, he would recuse himself from any vote on the sheriff’s proposal should it ever come to a vote.

“I, for one, believe we have to do something,” Jackson said. “We’re getting bigger and our problems are getting bigger and we’re going to grow in spite of ourselves.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.