Smelterville, SCSO relationship is renewed

SMELTERVILLE— The citizens of Smelterville can rest a little easier now once again, as their city’s contractual relationship between them and the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office has officially been renewed.

After a rather sudden ending to their previous contract last August, SCSO and Smelterville Mayor Tom Benson remained in communication to work on getting something put back in place.

“In the short time that they didn’t have a contract, it was realized that it was needed,” Sheriff Mike Gunderson told the News-Press Wednesday morning.

The City of Smelterville is currently experiencing growth and is one of the last areas in the Silver Valley with undeveloped flat land that offers potential business expansion. With the growth of Smelterville in mind, the city sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a contract with the SCSO. Gunderson explains that this first proposal would have been difficult to fulfill for monetary reasons.

“The money would have been in the hundreds of thousands,” he said.

With some more back and forth communication, it was eventually agreed upon that Smelterville will pay $40,000 a year, which includes a minimum of two hours of direct patrol time per day, while also responding to all crimes in the Smelterville area that are called in.

“If you do the math, two hours a day. Thirty days a month, that’s sixty hours spent in Smelterville for the month. An officer with benefits is about $42 an hour, so you are looking at about $2,500 a month, looking at about $30,000-$34,000 for the year, just in wages. This is not taking into account fuel or other expenses,” Gunderson said.

SCSO will not be conducting any type of animal control or city ordinance violations,as this will be provided by a code enforcement officer hired by the city at a later date.

It was previously reported August 2021 that along with 101 arrests in the last 12 months, Gunderson said his office responded to 850 calls, made 293 traffic stops, and patrolled the city for 2,000 hours–not counting the time associated with any of the paperwork for the previously listed incidents.

The point of contention in the past between SCSO and the City of Smelterville was a perception by the city that certain areas of the town were getting more attention than others.

“Of the 101 arrests we’ve made in Smelterville in the last 12 months, 31 of them came directly off of Main Street,” Gunderson previously explained. “People don’t see us there 24 hours a day, so they just think they don’t ever see us. But there isn’t anywhere that we can be for 24 hours a day.”

SCSO began patrolling Smelterville again starting March 1 and citizens can expect to see the cars patrolling, being active, and watching for violators of crime.

“We are happy to have it back, helping out the people of Smelterville, with the extension of the Silver Valley,” Gunderson said. “We are very active in Smelterville and we will have no problem patrolling for two hours.”

Representatives of the City of Smelterville could not be reached for comment.