Kudos to the city and county

Finally.
That was our thoughts last Monday evening when the Custer City Council unanimously approved the latest proposal from the Custer County Commission that will see the Custer County Sheriff’s Office once again provide law enforcement for the City of Custer. The agreement came after 13 months of negotiation that was on again, off again, and sometimes a little cantankerous. But the important part is neither the Custer City Council nor the Custer County Commission ever completely gave up on the negotiations. For that, we say thank you.
It is often said that the best kind of negotiations are one where neither party is completely happy when all is said and done. If that is the case, then we have to believe this agreement between the two entities is a great compromise between the two entities. If you have been following the negotiations, the county wanted a dramatic increase in what it was receiving from the city—all the way up to $750,000 a year—while the city wanted to start out at $500,000 and work its way up. In the end, the two entities settled on a base rate of $600,000, with 6 percent increases over the course of 2028 and 2029. Both sides gave a little and moved off the numbers they were set on in the beginning. That is a true negotiation, and a true compromise.
Even more exciting is this new contract will enable the Custer County Sheriff’s Office to hire more deputies to patrol both the city and county. Make no mistake about it, Custer County is a rather large county in terms of overall area. The additional deputies will serve both the city and the county well. Custer County Sheriff Derrick Reifenrath has stated his intention to assign six deputies to exclusively patrol the city.
In the time since the agreement between the two entities lapsed at the end of last year, the sheriff’s office has learned some things about its patrol in the county, with Reifenrath saying at previous commission meetings that there were areas of the county that were being somewhat neglected in terms of patrol, because so much emphasis was being put on the city. It makes sense, because the city and immediate surrounding area are where the bulk of the population is in the county, but the people in Pringle, Fairburn, Buffalo Gap and the hinterlands are taxpayers as well, and they deserve law enforcement services as well. This new bolstered sheriff’s office will allow both the city and county to be covered by our fine folks in blue. That’s a prospect we should all be able to get behind.
If you know someone who is in law enforcement and would like to work in Custer, send them over to the sheriff’s office to apply. The sooner we get the seven deputies hired, the sooner the city and county can get the full coverage of law enforcement we all want them to have.
To both the city and county, thank you for giving a little to get a lot. A job well done. We know citizens of both the city and county are glad you continued to work to get the contract done. The vast majority wanted to see it, and you delivered. That’s representation at its finest.