HAYDEN: Support more deputies

As a resident of Kootenai County for more than 44 years and a resident in the Hayden area for the majority of that time, I’ve firsthand experienced the growth in our region. The city of Hayden has always been a bedroom community. Even with the 95 corridor retail growth and the location of many other businesses, my wife and I own three businesses located in Hayden. Hayden is primarily the place where people live, raise their children, recreate and retire to. Accordingly, people want to and deserve to feel and be safe in their neighborhoods.

I had the privilege to serve on the Citizens Committee to look at the current level of Sheriff’s Office staffing the city pays for, the statistics on type one and two crimes, and options for making our citizens feel safe in our homes. We started from scratch and at the end of many meetings reviewing statistics, drawing on law enforcement professionals’ experience and the gut feelings of the other members of the committee, we unanimously made a recommendation to the City Council to increase our Sheriff’s Department coverage agreement from 3 1/2 deputies — the 1/2 is a school resource officer — to 8 deputies providing 24/7 coverage in our town.

There is a cost to this, about $50 annually for the owner of a $300,000 home, but with multiple reports of attempted child abduction in Hayden on Tuesday, Sept. 24, do we wait until we lose a child, have a business broken into or a senior citizen robbed before we make sure our community is safe? I encourage the citizens of Hayden to vote for our safety in November.

K. JOHN YOUNG

Hayden