We will miss you dearly, Seth
It’s a day we feared. It’s a day we dreaded. It’s a day we knew would always come, but liked to think it would be years and years down the road. It’s a day that has come.
Seth Thompson is leaving the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. That, in turn, means that the Sheriff’s Log in this paper, in its current iteration, isn’t long for this world.
At the Sept. 20 meeting of the Custer County Commission, Sheriff Marty Mechaley made it official when he told the commission that Thompson had tendered his resignation, with his last day at the office having already come and gone by the time you read this newspaper. Seth had actually told us he was leaving earlier, but we didn’t want to say anything about it until it became official. It’s almost as if one of our staff members is leaving us. After all, the Sheriff’s Log is far and away one of the most popular aspects of this paper, thanks entirely to Seth’s way of mixing in humor with his reporting of what would otherwise be a lot of mundane police reports.
So where do we go from here? Well, rest assured, we want the Sheriff’s Log to continue in some form or fashion. Years ago when Seth left the sheriff’s office for a while, deputies took turn giving us a log, with some much more, shall we say, willing than others to write and make it an interesting read. A couple of the deputies did a fine job when they wrote the log, and we have a couple of deputies in mind we would like to see pick up where Seth left off. It’s huge shoes to fill, no doubt, but we are confident there is someone at the sheriff’s office who could do it. However, they have to be willing to do it and have to have the time to do it, so we will be in contact with the office to see what can be done to continue the log. Not only is it humorous, but it lets people know what kinds of crimes are being committed in the area and shows just how busy the sheriff’s office is in the county. We have also told Seth if he ever wants to write the log again just for fun, for some pay or just because (he will remain a reserve deputy) we would obviously welcome that as well.
For the next couple to few weeks (we can’t say with certainty, because it always depends on ads, space, etc.), we will continue on with Seth’s version of the Sheriff’s Log, as we have some backed up we have yet to print. And, as always, at the end of the year we will run a “Best of the Sheriff’s Log” feature with our top 20 favorite entries from the past year.
We’ve gotten to know Seth over the years he has written the log (and he has written it for many combined years) and he is just as funny a guy in person as he is on the Records page of the Custer County Chronicle. We have greatly appreciated his writing the Sheriff’s Log, as we know all of you have. To say he will be missed is a gross understatement.
We wish Seth the best of luck in his future endeavors. We hope for him the truth is indeed out there, that he avoids the Pringle (and Argyle) cows, that gas stations implement pay-before-you-pump policies everywhere he goes, he runs into no stupifying or dastardly crimes and the moral of the story is always obvious.
Thanks, Seth.