Raleigh County Sheriff Jim Canaday says several years ago the department made a conscious decision to become more present in our communities.
With road construction on the horizon in Beaver; Ghent seemed a good place to put a detachment.
They’ve leveraged a great relationship with the Ghent Elementary School Board, who he says have helped bring this to fruition.
“It’ll be a full-service detachment like the one in Glen Daniel. You’ll be able to come up and pay your taxes, speak to an officer, get a copy of a police report if you want, and it’ll be great for folks on this end of the county,” Canaday said. “It also gives us a presence out here whenever that traffic does begin.”
Raleigh County Schools’ responsibility every day is to ensure the safety of their students and staff. In this day and time, you never know. They want to be as prepared as possible. They don’t have assigned elementary school resource officers so Superintendent Serena Starcher says when Canaday proposed the detachment, she saw it as a win-win.
“Then I presented that to our board of education. Obviously, it takes a little transfer of property… it’s a half acre. But it’s worth it,” said Starcher, adding the partnership they have with both the sheriff’s and police department. “Our board was completely on board, as was our office and we look forward to working with the sheriff in the coming months.”
According to Canaday — the sheriff’s department is ready to go and the county commission is fully supportive of this project. It’s all contingent on the weather.
Raleigh County District 1 Commissioner Dave Tolliver says they budgeted $250,000 for this project. Construction often ends up being more and could be $300,000. They have the money set aside and would love to have the detachment up and running by fall.
“With the new satellite station it’d be just a great benefit for the people out here,” Tolliver said. “It’s a benefit to the school too if they ever had anything out here the deputy is just right here on the scene.”
The sheriff says the detachment will be a place for deputies to come and work out of and a civilian staff that will work there too. They’ve always taken seriously their responsibility to schools and students.
“This gives us premises on school property where we can have a deputy and the sheriff’s department will be present, not just for the residents. But I think also for the school it’s very beneficial,” said Canaday.
According to the commissioner, the Glen Daniel detachment works great. That’s what they’re hoping for the Ghent detachment too.
“You live in Arnet or somewhere, instead of coming into Beckley — they just drive up to Glen Daniels; pay your taxes and everything. Doesn’t have to come uptown,” Tolliver said. “So it’s a big plus for everyone.”
