FARMINGTON — On Dec. 7 the Franklin County commissioners voted unanimously to accept a donation of a K-9 for the sheriff’s department. Racke (pronounced ra-ka) is a three-year-old female German Shepherd who is already in training for narcotics detection. Racke comes from Von Woden Kennels.
Located in Weld, Von Woden Kennels is owned by David Rackliffe, a patrol lieutenant in the sheriff’s department. Von Woden has previously donated K-9s Rebel and Justice to the county. Lt. Rackliffe is one of the county’s K-9 handlers and works with K-9 Rebel.
The county’s other K-9 duo is Sgt. Nate Bean and K-9 Bain. Bain is eight years old and expected to retire within a couple of years. Until a couple of years ago, the department had three K-9 teams, and Sheriff Scott Nichols and Chief Deputy Steve Lowell recently decided to add that third position back in. This will allow the department to maintain two fully-trained, active-duty K-9 teams when K-9 Bain retires, ensuring they can respond when a team is needed.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Office typically has dual-certified K-9s for both patrol work and narcotics detection. Patrol work can include object search and recovery, building searches, and missing persons searches. Narcotics detection continues to be an important task as rural Maine battles the opioid crisis.
The position for K-9 handler is currently posted internally at the sheriff’s department.
Lt. Rackliffe also requested authorization to expend Stonegarden funds to make up the balance on a TruNarc device. TruNarc is a handheld device that emits a laser beam into a substance and analyzes the refraction to determine what the substance is. It can be used to analyze the contents of plastic bags without needing to open them, reducing the risk of officer exposure to fentanyl and other hazardous substances.
The device costs nearly $30,000. Most of the purchase price was covered through grant funding, and Lt. Rackcliffe requested the use of Stonegarden mileage reimbursement funds to cover roughly $1,000. The Stonegarden funds are federal funds awarded to agencies that provide law enforcement services on the country’s borders. The commissioners approved the request.
A request for an adjusted lease for the District Attorney’s office was reviewed. Previously the lease has been signed for five-year increments, and it is currently overdue for renewal. However, the county commissioners had expressed interest in a modified lease that could allow them to end the lease before the five-year period was over.
The reason for the request is that the current building that houses the sheriff’s office is too small. Patrol officers share a small common office with limited storage spaces. Behind the building are multiple storage containers that hold evidence and equipment.
There is some discussion, although no official proposals have been made, to build a larger facility on the same property. This would allow the sheriff’s office the space they need, and the DA’s office could reasonably be incorporated into the project in some fashion. There is a possibility that federal COVID-19 relief funds could be used to fund an infrastructure project of this nature.
In the interests of keeping their opinions open, the county oversized the new septic system that was installed at the sheriff’s office, to facilitate a larger building down the road.
No decisions were made with regards to the lease. The landowner proposed that the county should consider other options, including possibly buying the building that the DA’s office is currently in; the close proximity to the courthouse and county offices does have advantages. The commissioners indicated that they will discuss it again in a later meeting.
