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Sheriff candidates speak out

Voters get to hear from four lawmen who seek Lyon County office

MARSHALL — The 2018 primary election is approaching. But on Aug. 14, it won’t just be state and national races on the ballot. In Lyon County, voters will also be deciding which candidates for county sheriff will be going on to the November election.

Lyon County Sheriff candidates Steven Louwagie, Jim Marshall, Tony Rolling and Eric Wallen took part in a candidate forum Thursday morning at the Adult Community Center in Marshall. They weighed in on issues facing Lyon County law enforcement, and took questions from county residents.

Current Lyon County Sheriff Mark Mather has said he won’t be seeking re-election this year, and plans to retire at the end of his term in January.

Experience and perspectives

All four sheriff candidates are current law enforcement officers. Both Louwagie and Rolling are currently investigators with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department. Louwagie started his law enforcement career with the Tracy Police Department, and in 2005 joined the Sheriff’s Department. Louwagie has worked with the county Child Protection Team, and oversees the “Take It To the Box” drug disposal program.

Louwagie grew up in Lyon County and lives in rural Lyon County today.

“I think that gives me a whole new perspective on what the role of the Sheriff’s Office is,” he said.

Rolling started his law enforcement career with the Balaton and Tracy police departments, and joined the Sheriff’s Department in 2003. Rolling has also served with the area SWAT team, the Lyon County Sexual Assault Multidisciplinary Action Response Team (SMART), and the Women’s Rural Advocacy Program (WRAP).

Rolling said his experience serving on the Tracy Fire Department, he has learned incident command and leadership skills.

“That gives me supervisory experience,” he said.

Wallen is currently a sergeant with the Sheriff’s Department. In his 20 years with the department, he has also served as a correctional officer, deputy and investigator.

Wallen said his supervisory experience in many areas of the Sheriff’s Department would be useful as sheriff.

“In reality, the role of sheriffs themselves is a more managerial one,” as opposed to patrolling, he said.

Marshall is a sergeant with the Marshall Police Department. Marshall has been with the MPD since 1992, and served eight years as the school resource officer at Marshall Public Schools. Over the course of his career, he has also served as interim assistant police chief and interim police chief in Marshall. Marshall said he has “proven leadership skills,” which would be helpful to him as sheriff.

Filling the county’s needs

During the forum, the four candidates were asked what they saw as the biggest need for the Sheriff’s Department, and how they would fill it. There were some areas that candidates agreed were important, like school safety, dealing with mental health issues, and fighting drug abuse in Lyon County. But they did have some different approaches to public safety in the county.

“I agree these are needs our office faces, that we need to deal with,” Wallen said. But he did have a different perspective, from the management side of the Sheriff’s Department. “I think our biggest need for the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is our ability to attract and retain good quality employees.”

Fewer people today are applying for law enforcement positions, and it’s difficult to replace experienced people, Wallen said. As sheriff, he would work to create a work environment that will retain employees.

Wallen said he aspires to provide the services county residents want.

Louwagie said for him, “School safety is the number one, top priority.” However, he said if elected he would also like to implement a K-9 at the sheriff’s department. A dog could help the department in sniffing out drugs and curbing drug problems in Lyon County, he said. “It’s something I’m going to take a hard look into.”

Marshall said the Sheriff’s Department faced challenges that were both external and internal. On the external level, he said, “Is the issue that we’re struggling with, with drug abuse and drug addiction in our communities.” Addressing that issue will require both enforcement, and education for kids and youth.

“Internally, I think the biggest challenge we’re going to face … is the recruitment and retention of employees,” Marshall said. He said the Sheriff’s Department will need to find leadership opportunity for employees, and offer fair compensation for employees. “We need to be competitive.”

Rolling said his goal would be for the Sheriff’s Department to build up trust and communication with employees.

“Communication is vital to everything we do in daily life,” Rolling said. “We need to be able, as a sheriff, to communicate to the people that are working with us.”

Externally, he said, “One of my issues is community relationships.” The Sheriff’s Department needs to be more present in schools and communities in Lyon County. One example might be to help offer safety training to area schools, he said.

Fighting drug abuse

Many audience members wanted to know how candidates would address the issue of drugs in Lyon County.

“I’m a realist,” Louwagie said. “I know we are never going to be able to stop all the drug problems that are within Lyon County. I think we could do a better job of curbing some of the problems.”

Louwagie thought Lyon County should continue to support the area drug task force, and he said he wanted to encourage deputies to give a lot of focused attention to drug problems in the county. Adding a K-9 to the Sheriff’s Department could also help, he said.

Marshall said reducing drug abuse in Lyon County needed to be a community effort, including both enforcement and education.

“I think we have to be creative … to bring a new curriculum into our schools and work with our youth,” he said. “Just sitting and talking about it isn’t working.”

Rolling said drugs have continued to be a steady problem law enforcement faces. Today, he said, “The opiod crisis that we’re in is almost a pandemic across the entire country.”

Fighting the pandemic will need to involve education, programs like Lyon County’s prescription drug disposal box, and community involvement. “We can slow it down, and we can do some good.”

Wallen agreed that drugs were a multi-faceted problem in the county. The county needs deputies who are trained in drug investigations, he said.

“We need to focus on greater enforcement. Our drug task force could always stand to have more help,” Wallen said. Youth education would be another important resource, as would resources like Narcan that can prevent drug overdose deaths.

One other option, Wallen said, would be working with the state Legislature.

“As sheriff, I think we are in a unique position where we can use our role to work with legislators … to look at things like changing the laws, and increasing penalties” for drug offenses, Wallen said.

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