GCSO ends contracts in Desert Aire, Coulee City

EPHRATA — The governing board in Desert Aire is requesting proposals for security services following the end of a contract for law enforcement services between Desert Aire and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. Grant County Sheriff Joey Kriete said a similar contract with the town of Coulee City is also being terminated.

“We have a situation where we didn’t have enough personnel to cover those areas as well as cover our requirements for patrol staffing,” Kriete said. “We couldn’t meet the obligations of those contracts because of staff shortages.”

Jeannie Denbo, board president for the Desert Aire Owners Association, said board members are hoping to award a contract by the end of February.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get awarded as quickly as possible,” Denbo said.

Coulee City city officials didn’t respond to a question on the city’s plans in time to be included in this article.

Kriete said GCSO has experienced the retirement of a number of experienced patrol deputies, and while new deputies have been hired, it takes a while to complete the training.

“With a brand new hire, you don’t get to count them as their own individual deputy for about a year,” he said. “They’re teamed up in a car with somebody or they’re at the (law enforcement) academy. Just the pure training of new people gets in the way of getting people released on patrol on their own.”

Kriete said he started his law enforcement career in 1993, just about the time the department experienced a similar wave of retirements.

“I think in my first two years I went from the bottom of the seniority list to having six or seven people (with less seniority) in the first year or two years,” he said. “So here we are, 30 years later, and we kind of have the same issue with people retiring. So it’s kind of a cycle we go through about every 25 to 30 years.”

Once deputies are out on the road, Kriete said that with enough GCSO personnel on patrol, separate contracts with cities and communities might not be necessary.

“We’ll reevaluate those needs in the future, but I’m hoping we can get enough coverage with our patrol deputies,” he said.

Reducing the need for a contract would save communities and cities money, he said.

“I think that in the long run is probably best for those communities. In this day and age of being fiscally responsible, especially the way our economy is, we really don’t want to have our communities spending money they don’t need to spend when they’re already getting the services that we provide,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.