(Police Reports - Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission is applying for a grant to help fund a school resource officer.

Wood County Grant Coordinator Toni Tiano, Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard and Chief Deputy Mike Deem appeared before the commission to discuss the grant and what the officer would be doing.

The federal Justice Assistance Grant applied through the state would be for $28,000 with the schools contributing over $13,500.

The deputy would be based out of Blennerhassett Elementary/Middle School, but would also spend time at other schools around the county, Deem said.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo wondered if the department would be getting pushback from some in the community who think the officer should be at Blennerhassett all the time.

Deem said they have discussed the situation.

“In our opinion it is better to have an officer who can go to each one of these schools and give each the same amount of coverage as opposed to having one school with a police officer in it and four others who have none,” he said.

Woodyard added that this position is not a school security position, also known as a school prevention officer.

“The officer is there to mentor kids,” he said.

Schools like Mineral Wells and Kanawha Elementary do not have an officer there.

“It will allow the officer to get to know the kids,” Woodyard said. “It will expose the kids to the officer and hopefully the officer will be able to pick up if there are any kind of problems the kids might be having or if the kids are having some kind of problem at home.

“That would allow these kids to have some kind of contact with an officer.”

Woodyard said they have heard from some school personnel who do not like the idea of dividing the officer’s time among different schools.

“We have to divide our staff to be able to protect as many people as we can,” Woodyard said. “That is where we are at.”

Commission President Blair Couch said the schools can contribute more money to pay for additional officers.

Woodyard said they are working with the schools and the legislature on measures that would allow them to hire more officers or to allow the schools to hire their own officers.

Deem said their focus would be to prevent people from getting to the schools.

However, any officers hired would have to be trained certified police officers, Woodyard said of the training and experience needed to handle these situations.

Getting kids comfortable with police officers is one of the goals, Colombo said.

“The sooner you can get people talking to police officers in a friendly kind of way, the better it is for everyone,” he said.

Woodyard said they are trying to serve as many people as they can with the resources they have available.

Deem said that the majority of cases they have been involved in lately deal with children.

The commission unanimously agreed to apply for the grant.

The commission also approved to apply for a $17,256 state grant for bulletproof vests to replace vests for their patrol officers and court officers. The commission also approved to match those funds to pay for all the vests if approved.

Woodyard said they have had contact with school officials over the past six weeks and had people patrolling school zones.

“We have had a problem of people wanting to pass school buses when they are stopped with the signs out,” he said. “We have made three arrests on people doing that.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com