Steamboat Pilot & Today

To Sheriff Wall: Congratulations on fulfilling your "wink, wink" campaign promise to minimize drug enforcement in Routt County. Your decision to not fund GRAMNET goes a long way toward that end.

I am equally sure the drug dealers and users in our community are glad to hear that you are more concerned about their civil rights than what their activities are doing to our children and our community. Getting rid of the most experienced personnel in the Sheriff's Office was a nice touch and goes a long way to ensure any prior drug activity knowledge is not carried forward. To say that you are not "soft on drugs" is simply not credible.

To the Board of County Commissioners: Once again you need to go into the breach. You already have protected us from two incredibly bad decisions by Sheriff Wall. His attempt to pay his unqualified undersheriff an obscene amount of money was a bad decision that was understood as such by most people. Equally bad, in my view, was his attempt to locate his office in the courthouse rather than in the Sheriff's Office.

As a retired Army officer who has commanded different levels, being located with the troops and where the action occurs is extremely important. There is no substitute for being "on the ground" and with the troops. Here you can determine what is really happening and prevent problems from growing by making corrections in a timely manner. For Sheriff Wall to want to be in the courthouse and away from his troops speaks volumes about his priorities and ability.

To not have effective drug enforcement in rural Routt County is unacceptable to me as a taxpayer. The purpose of this letter is to request the county commissioners fund GRAMNET directly from the county level and to dock the sheriff's budget by the appropriate amount to do this. By taking this action, you can insure that rural Routt County will not lose the only effective program that we have to fight drugs. Thank you for you help in this critical matter.

David R. Moss

Clark