Chelan County Sheriff's deputies train school staff in 'mock' drill

Chelan County Sheriff’s deputies were at Chelan High School Tuesday to lead a 'mock active threat' drill with school staff.

"Running through a few scenarios," said Sheriff's Sgt. Rob Huddleston. "This is kind of a refresher for the staff; what to expect from law enforcement when we arrive (in the event of an actual emergency). And its also to get them in a mind-set of what's going to be happening during a this threat. Sgt. Frank came up a couple years ago and did training for the Chelan School District. He's done training for the city of Chelan."

Evidence from the most recent burglary at Bill's Gas in Chelan has been recovered by Sheriff's detectives with the help of citizens who responded to a call for assistance heard on KOZI last week and from a social media post.

"We got multiple calls of the cash registers being dumped alongside the road," Sgt. Huddleston noted. "We went to recover those."

"It's amazing that you come and talk about something on the radio and the next thin you know you're phone is blowing up," added Huddleston. "It really helped."

There’s still snow in the high country and the Sheriff’s Office has four new snowmobiles for a time of need or search and rescue.

Sheriff Mike Morrison says the vehicles are an important part of his office's fleet of marine, aerial and ground crafts.

The Sheriff says there is some unique terrain in Chelan County and it's tough to get to some of these locations, so deputies use dirt bikes, quads, side-by-sides, personal watercraft, boats, helicopters, and snowmobiles.

Morrison says the snowmobiles are the latest additions in an attempt to update the Sheriff's Office's extended motor pool assets.

The Sheriff's Office interest in procuring funding from the state legislature to replace the agency's two helicopters and its largest marine vessel which serves the upper part of Lake Chelan, have been unsuccessful - leaving the Sheriff in what he calls an "interesting predicament," since the helicopters will soon time out of service.