Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

Washington County Sheriff Scott Owen was our guest on KWON's COMMUNITY CONNECTION of Friday.

The Sheriff invited everyone out to Tri-County Technology Center's career fair on May the 9th. Said Owen, "We're going to have a Washington County Sheriff's Department booth set up for the students that may have interest in public safety or law enforcement or detention career, and we'll have that staffed with some handouts, some applications, people to ask them questions."

The sheriff said that a large number of his staff, especially on the detention side, are younger people fresh out of high school or college. Owen said that because he's allowed to utilize 18-year-olds in that facility, in that job description, that he really has a good group of young people working there at this time.

Owen said the he has been able to move several of his young detention staff into police officer certification and into field training and preparing them for shift assignment on road patrol or transport division. So we like to draw from within. He said, "We're very fortunate. It allowed me to move one of my patrolmen out to the investigator's position and we're very proud of Will Gerhardt. He graduated the OSBI Criminal Investigation Academy yesterday."

The Sheriff said he has two current jail supervisors that are in the Bartlesville BPOC Academy, which is a basic police academy that is hosted and operated by the Bartlesville Police Department in conjunction with Tri-County Tech's Public Safety Training Program right here in town.

His reserve program has started to grow a little bit. Said Owen, "I've got about a dozen reserve deputies. Their first big spring assignment is going to be the Delaware Pow Wow. We work that every year for all three days. Emergency management will set up their command trailer and we'll have everything in that command trailer that we have in dispatch basically. That's a great celebration up there." He added, "Sunfest coming up the last weekend of May, first weekend of June so to speak. We'll be out there with a booth."

Owen expressed his pride inthe condition of the jail saying, "Believe it or not, 15 years old. It doesn't look that old. I've got a really good jail staff and I've got a really good maintenance staff that are proactive in nature. Pretty much every pod down there has been gone through. Things like electrical and lighting, plumbing, things of that nature. A lot of new replacements and painting."

According to Owen, "Our jail administrator James Pendergraft, he's my lieutenant in the jail. We have him and I've added a second assistant jail administrator. Terry Woods, he's former sheriff's deputy, former Bartlesville Police. He came back to me is now one of my assistant jail administrators is Mitch Doyle who has operated the inmate work crew for years and worked in the jail and commissary in the kitchen down there. Those three men are instrumental in making a lot of changes and major support for me in that area and I can't say thank you to those men enough but we have educational programs, GED programs, re-entry programs, jail ministry programs, all those things and it's primarily because these men push that envelope and make it happen."

We've got a car show in October doesn't seem like it's right on us but it will be right on us. Sheriff Owen invited everyone to a couple of fundraisers for the purpose of Christmas funding and Thanksgiving funding. On June the 7th the Masonic Lodge fraternity will be hosting our Sheriff Reserve benefit breakfast . He said that the Eagles are going to have a bingo for that cause, too. Owen chuckled that the annual car show kind of works its own deal.

Owen put out som summer reminders that especially in rural areas you'll need to watch for the ranchers who are going to be processing hay. You're going to have slow moving ag vehicles on the road.

He also reminded everyone that the alcohol consumption goes up so our arrest rates will go up some probably in that area. Owen said, "What we want to do is reinforce the fact if you're going to be doing that know your limit and always designate a drive. The last figures I saw os that if one would get arrested for a DUI, by the time you finish all your fines, your costs, your insurance increases, schools you have to go to and driver's license reinstatements things and such. Probably about ten thousand dollars on the low end."

Sheriff Owen thanked Phillips Petroluem for the new radios for the Sheriff's Office Deputies.

In closing, Owen said,"It's been a good year. I've this year started my beginning my second term elected second term and I look forward to being here through 29 and as we get there I'll decide if I want to keep them on working and try for another term or hand the torch to someone else.