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ELKINS -- The Randolph County Commission approved the purchase of both a K-9 officer and also tasers for the Randolph County's Sheriff's Office.
Commissioners David Kesling and Chris See agreed at this week's commission meeting to contribute toward the purchase of a K-9 officer for the sheriff's department. Commission President Mark Scott could not attend the meeting.
The Randolph County Deputy Sheriff's Association originally came up with a plan to make a push toward providing a dog for the sheriff department.
"This spring we decided as an association to begin a fundraising campaign in order to purchase a K-9 to donate back to the sheriff's office," Brice Cogar, president of the RCDSA, told commissioners. "We felt that this would be a great benefit for the community and would help in community relations as well serve citizens' safety. It would also help in tracking and of course in detection of narcotics. We set a goal of $25,000, broken down to $18,000 for the canine and training, and $7,000 for equipment and expenses.
"With the help of many business and private donors, we have been able to raise enough for the down payment, which allowed us to go ahead and send one deputy up to Ohio to start training and get paired up with the canine."
The RCDSA has raised a total of $7,100 toward the purchase of the K-9 officer. Commissioners agreed during the meeting to donate $12,500 toward the association's goal of $25,000.
"We know getting a K-9 would be very good for the county," See said. "To have a K-9 to use, especially against the drugs in the community, will be beneficial. So we discussed it and came up with an amount to help out."
The county's contribution to the purchase of the K-9 officer will be taken out of the county's COVID-related fund.
The second item on the agenda for the Sheriff's Office was the proposed purchase of tasers. The commission also voted to approve the purchase of the tasers at a cost of $74,499.37, which will also come out of the county's COVID-related fund.
"This is huge for our department and it gives us another step level in force when we are out here dealing with the public," Sheriff Rob Elbon said. "We go from our spray in physical contact to our firearms. So this will give us another step level to be able to handle people that are out of control. It's going to make a big difference and we thank the commission for the help with this purchase."
The company supplying the tasers to the RCSD will continuously send replacement cartridges, officials said, and if there's a problem with any of the units, the company will fix the issue for as long as the Sheriff's Office have the tasers. The department will also receive a virtual Oculus headset and suit for training.
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The commission also approved at the meeting the hiring of two part-time employees for the 911 Center, Marshall Howser and Richard Hamrick. Both will start at $9.94 per hour and will be under a 90-day probation period.
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The commission approved the purchase of tax collection software for the county's fire fees in the amount of $2,400.
The new software will allow citizens to use a debit or credit card to pay the fee in person or online.
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The commission also approved during the meeting the replacement of the air conditioning rooftop unit on top of the courthouse annex.
"This is a unit we've been told is on its last leg and can go at anytime," See said. "We've been putting off replacing it, so with summer coming we need to replace it before it gets hot outside."
The cost for the replacement unit is $14,280 and will be taken from the courthouse contractual fund.