Gunderson addresses Wallace Chamber

Shoshone County Sheriff Mike Gunderson gave his first public address as sheriff on Tuesday when he spoke to members of the Wallace Chamber of Commerce at their monthly meeting held at the Fainting Goat.

Sheriff Gunderson discussed several projects he has been working on since he took office 46 days ago, as well as some of his future plans for the Office.

Gunderson kicked off the presentation by talking about one the main pillars of his campaign, the reintroduction of the Drug Task Force and how it has already shown some success.

“We have had quite a few narcotic arrests in the last 30 days,” Gunderson stated, “we expect this to continue to increase as we continue to work on this agreement with the other local agencies as well as Idaho State Police and other narcotics enforcement agencies.”

Gunderson and the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office have also been working on the assimilation of the Pinehurst Police Department into the SCSO since the city decided to contract out with them earlier this year.

“We took over law enforcement in Pinehurst,” Gunderson said. “We were able to hire new officers who will work over there, so we are not taking away from our current staff.”

One of the biggest issues that was discussed during last year’s election was funding (or a lack thereof) both for the SCSO and from the SCSO.

Gunderson had discussed during the election his desire to get the Shoshone County Jail re-certified with the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC), which would allow him and the rest of his office the ability to generate revenue.

“We are working diligently to get re-certified,” Gunderson said. “We have our yearly jail certification inspection in May. Last month I was able to bill the IDOC for $21,000 in revenue from the 19 state inmates that we were holding. Our jail holds 50 people and if we can hold 20 state inmates we can generate around $300,000 for the year in revenue from IDOC. We are trying to move forward.”

This statement was met with a substantial amount of applause from the business owners and chamber members, who loved hearing any idea that doesn’t cost them anything in tax funds.

Gunderson is also exploring various grant opportunities within his department so that he can make the SCSO a place where law enforcement officers can make a competitive wage.

“I tried to recently hire a local city officer to the Sheriff’s Office,” Gunderson said. “They make about $3 more an hour than my captain does. That has never been the case ever before. We have to try to even that scale out. Because when the city officers aren’t there it’s the SCSO that is responsible for them. We know we aren’t going to equal the Kootenai or Spokane County wages, but we need to be competitive with our local agencies though if we want to retain our deputies.”

A question was asked concerning the re-establishment of a neighborhood watch program, which Sheriff Gunderson was quick to show his support of.

“I think it would great for any community to have a neighborhood watch program,” Gunderson said. “Right Smelterville has one because they are having a lot of problems there, but they want to take their town back. We are looking to renegotiate another contract there which would generate some more money for the county, but in the meantime they have implemented a neighborhood watch there. You guys are the eyes and ears of the community. We are also looking into bringing back the ‘Citizens On Patrol’ program so that we can have those eyes and ears out there assisting us.”

One concerned citizen brought up their disdain for the ISP’s seemingly preferred usage of Shoshone County’s portion of I-90 for significant drug arrests stating that, “they don’t like how it makes us look like we are the drug capital of the world.”

Gunderson was amused by the question and answered it in way that showed that he was very familiar with the question.

“If you are talking about the I-90 corridor, the reason we have so many of those arrests here are because that particular officer lives here,” Gunderson said. “His K9 is here, if they stop someone over in Kootenai County, but the availability of the K9 is here they can’t detain the person until the K9 arrives. People are starting to learn not to be bringing drugs through the I-90 corridor.”

Gunderson answered a few more questions, but his message was very clear and it echoed his campaign.

“We need to work together. If we can do things together we are going to be better,” Gunderson said.“