Sheriff pleas for public safety support

To The Eagle:

This letter is my plea for folks to support the Proposition 1 Public Safety Levy this November. I am voting yes for this levy. Why? There are several reasons. For 15 years our property taxes have been capped at 1 percent maximum increase per year. While property taxes remain at 1 percent increase per year, our public safety expenses increase anywhere from 3-4 percent, so the gap is widening each year between revenue to fund basic services and the cost to perform these services.

We don’t have the retail tax revenue in our county to help support our county government so we rely on property taxes to assist. The ever widening gap will reach a critical point where we won’t even be able to sustain the services we currently have let alone improve our infrastructure and law enforcement abilities.

We need this levy to keep a dedicated school resource officer in our Wahkiakum and Naselle schools now and in the future. We need this levy to provide more night time coverage in patrol and to provide more follow up on open cases. We need this levy to fund radio improvements so that deputies, fire, and EMS can talk to each other from one end of the county to the other.

Right now we do not even have the capability for a deputy to hear another in distress from county line to Deep River. That is unsafe and unreasonable. But the cost to patch our towers of communication – simulcast – is not financially feasible without the help of this levy. There are major upgrades to our computer and records systems that are in store in the future and we will struggle to stay in compliance with state mandates if we don’t plan for the costs now.

Help us maintain and improve our quality law enforcement services. Help us in public safety maintain and improve our communications system so we are always ready to help you when you are in need. Help us keep a valuable tool in our schools with a dedicated school resource officer building relationships with school staff, students, and parents so that our kids stay safe and the sheriff's office stays plugged into school activities. By supporting this levy and voting yes, you are voting yes on the public safety services that foster a healthy and safe county!

Mark Howie

Wahkiakum County Sheriff