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ELKINS -- The Randolph County Commission approved a pair of funding requests from the Randolph County Sheriff's Office Thursday during the most recent commission meeting.
Commission President David Kesling and fellow Commissioners Chris See and Cris Siler unanimously approved $149,513 in funding for items requested for the RCSO.
The first request on the meeting's agenda was for the purchase of tasers and body cams for two new deputies with the Sheriff's Office, as well as two new tasers for a pair of recently hired court security officers.
"I would ask that we get those things coming in so we can get those guys outfitted with gear," Sheriff Rob Elbon said. "We have one deputy graduating from the police academy in Fairmont on Dec. 8. The next deputy got approval this morning and will go to the academy in January, so we will get him certified and ready to go."
The total costs for the tasers and body cams from Axon Enterprises was for the amount of $13,202. The money for those items will be taken from the Courthouse Contractuals line item in the county budget.
The second request from the Sheriff's Office was for the purchase of three new cruisers for its patrol fleet.
"We have been looking around trying to find cruisers and the only thing that is available right now is Dodge products," said Elbon. "We found some Dodge Durangos in Pennsylvania and they are $45,437 apiece. So I would like to request to replace a wrecked cruiser that we have with one of those, and then get two more more for our regular rotation of vehicles to keep the guys in a fleet with.
"We have five or six (vehicles) right now that are 100,000 (miles) plus and we have a couple in the 96 to 97 thousand range. With you guys letting us have a couple of those a year, we are keeping the vehicles fresh. We have no spares at this point to put someone in if one of the vehicles breaks… So I'm requesting the purchase of three Dodge Durango pursuit vehicles."
Kesling then asked Elbon to tell the commission about the patrol unit that was wrecked.
"How that came about was that Deputy Davis was responding to a domestic situation where it was very physical and the victim suffered a broken jaw," Elbon said. "By the time he (Davis) got there, he received a vehicle description and passed the vehicle, so he turned around trying to pull the person over.
"The suspect fled and ran into Heavener Acres. The suspect fled into the trailer park and made a u-turn in there and came back around. There was a trooper involved in the pursuit and the suspect slammed into the state police cruiser and totaled that vehicle.
"When he did he bounced back out and hit our car and our guy pitted him and spun him around in the trailer park to keep him from getting out in the traffic and into Forest Festival pedestrian traffic in town that day.
"So basically it was a bad situation and the deputy felt if the suspect got back out into the crowd in town, something bad would happen, so he took him out in the trailer park," Elbon said. "So that vehicle was totaled in the process… Tough situation when these kinds of things happen. The state police investigated the whole thing and they cleared their trooper and they cleared our driver as no fault in the situation. Honestly, both of those guys probably need a commendation of some sort for doing what they did."
The total cost for the three new patrol units will be $136,311. The money will be taken from the Courthouse Equipment line item in the county budget.
"The Courthouse Equipment line is a line that we budget yearly for vehicles for the county," said Kesling. "So this request will take a big chunk out of that."
The next Randolph County Commission meeting will be Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m.