The Grant County Sheriff’s Office and the Forest Service are close to inking a five-year contract to provide the county with a $16,000 increase in pay for part-time forest patrol.

Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer said he has been communicating with Craig Trulock, Malheur National Forest supervisor.

He said he had been keeping Trulock apprised of what his office is seeing and doing when on patrol in the forest.

Palmer said it “sounds promising” that funding could come from “adjacent forests” beyond Malheur.

Trulock said Friday the Forest Service is putting together a five-year contract that will provide the county with $20,000 per year to pay for forest patrol.

Trulock said the Forest Service would meet with the sheriff’s office annually to assess the staffing situation and add more funds to the agreement on an as-needed basis.

He said the contract is “not just a one-shot of money.”

Trulock said the Forest Service is getting the agreement in right at the end of its fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

He said Forest Service Law Enforcement gets separate funding that could add to the agreement, but he said he does not know how much they have this late into the fiscal year.

He said both the Forest Service and Forest Service Law Enforcement could add money to the contract in the next fiscal year.

County Commissioner Jim Hamsher said the Forest Service currently provides $6,000 to pay for a forest patrol deputy.

County Treasurer Julie Ellison said the fund she uses to pay for the forest patrol position has been over budget every year because the contract that pays for the forest patrol deputy does not immediately pay out.

She said the position was supposed to be for a part-time, non-union reserve deputy, but the sheriff’s office has Deputy Dave Dobler patrolling the forest.

Ellison said that Dobler puts in 30 hours a week and, with benefits, earns roughly $50 per hour. She said he is one of the most expensive deputies within the sheriff’s office.

The part-time position was budgeted at $14 per hour with no benefits.

In the past, she said, deputies performed forest patrols as they passed through the area.

“In years past, it was supposed to be someone at a pretty low rate for that person to go out into the forest and patrol occasionally,” she said. “Now they have put Dobler, who is the highest-paid deputy with the highest PERS rate and a pretty good insurance rate.”

Hamsher said he had conversations with Trulock about renewing the contract that would have the Forest Service provide the county $35,000 to pay for forest patrol.

Hamsher said he would like to get a flat-rate amount that would cover the hourly rate. Then, he said, the county could invoice the Forest Service at the end of the month.

“With $6,000 they don’t get much patrolling done,” he said.

The county signed the contract in 2018. It is similar to others used in other Oregon counties.

In the past, the county had agreements with the Forest Service to patrol campgrounds on national forest lands during busy weekends, but there was no agreement in place from 2011 until the Rainbow Gathering in 2017.

“Our staffing will most likely stay the same,” Palmer said. “And it will be assigned to the part-time forest patrol deputy with possible extra coverage by full-time deputies to work the national forest areas when the need arises.”

Palmer said there is potential to bring in reserve deputies, such as when they are short-staffed on fires on rare occasions.

He said those may also go into a separate contract that would be billed to the fire instead of the patrol contract.

“And realistically, depending on the total amount,” he said, “we may seek authorization for our commissioners to move the position to full time rather than 30 hours a week.”

Palmer said it is something the county needs to consider because the workload has been heavy on the forest patrol.

“I believe we can justify a full-time employee,” he said. “It’s only if we can afford it.”

Trulock said the information sharing and coordination between the Forest Service and the sheriff’s office allows for more public safety,

“It’s a great tool,” he said. “It provides an opportunity to build relationships with the sheriff’s office. We only have one law enforcement officer for 1.7 million acres, so this is a great way for them to work together.”