Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office Buying Drug Dog

The Cheyenne County Commissioners Monday approved the purchase of a new drug-detection dog for the sheriff's department.

The dog will be purchased from IronHeart High Performance Working Dogs, Inc.

The challenge, according to Sheriff Adam Frerichs, has been to procure a dog trained according to the latest political policy. He said with decisions made in neighboring states regarding marijuana and debate in Nebraska on legalizing marijuana products, he waited to see what the state would do.

“Once you train a dog to detect marijuana, you can't un-train them,” he said.

The state recently removed marijuana from the list of substances to be detected. Drug dogs are trained to focus on methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

The dog will cost $10,500 and will include six weeks of training and follow-up.

The IronHeart Training Center has dogs in 21 countries. The organization is licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The handler course includes leash handling, report writing, latest trends in drug trafficking, concealment methods, search warrants and up-to-date case law, according to the IronHeart website.

In other business, the commissioners approved the purchase of a 2015 International truck from Cornhusker International. The truck comes at a price of $37,900.

The commissioners also approved the purchase of computer equipment for virtual meetings with the district and county courts. Commissioner Randy Miller encouraged departments to submit receipts for purchases related to the coronavirus for reimbursement under the CARES Act. He said the cost of supplies from hand sanitizer to plexiglas shields can be submitted.

The commissioners also approved the reappointment of Mandi Raffelson as the Community-Spirited Citizen to the Panhandle Public Health District board and approved a General Assistance request for county burial for Tracie Diedrich.

The commissioners also talked with Stacy Bach regarding renewal of her contract with the county for conflict indigent defense services. She said while her case load has increased, she is able to do more with video conferencing and asked the contract remain the same. The exception is when a ruling is appealed. She said an appeal can be very time intensive.

“The juvenile cases are the most consuming aspects of the job,” she said.

Larry Nelson met with the commissioners with a concern on road maintenance, that is, litter pick-up and of when right-of-ways are mowed. The discussion addressed what roads are under county jurisdiction and how to keep the streets clean.

The discussion included if the county can assign county inmates or people required to do public service to do trash pickup. Nelson also suggested highway sponsorship where a group would post and sign and be responsible for keeping that area clean.