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Sheriff’s center open house Saturday
Published 12:00 p.m., September 9, 2008
The public is invited to an open house at the new Otter Tail County Sheriff Department’s Ottertail Operations Center, across from Thumper Pond on the east side of Otter Tail Lake, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13.
Tours will be given. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet local law enforcement officers and refreshments will be served.
The operations center in Ottertail, on a 10-acre site, is located just east of the intersection of Highway 78 and Highway 108. The $4.5 million construction budget was reduced by $350,000, with those funds going toward debt reduction.
The Sheriff’s Department, several years ago, outgrew its headquarters at the Otter Tail County Courthouse south of downtown Fergus Falls. Some sheriff’s offices in Fergus Falls office remain but all patrol and investigative divisions will be based at the new operations center in Ottertail.
Otter Tail County has one of the largest water safety patrol divisions in the state of Minnesota, in light of over 1,000 lakes. Ottertail City, where the new operations center is located, is centrally located within Otter Tail County and will enhance efforts of the water safety patrol.
Along with the water patrol, the county's emergency management director also will be based from the new operations center in Ottertail. An emergency operations center and backup dispatch center also is established in Ottertail.
Sheriff Brian Schlueter and his deputies, while responding to emergencies in locations such as New York Mills and Perham in the eastern half of the county, previously were faced with one-hour drives from Fergus Falls. This points to another benefit of having the operations center located in Ottertail.
A booking room and temporary holding cell are in place at the new operations center to assist deputies. People in custody in Ottertail later can be transported to the Otter Tail County Jail in Fergus Falls.
Members of the Sheriff’s Department will have use of a new training room in Ottertail. The facility also can be used by surrounding counties for training sessions. Otter Tail deputies will be able to have joint meetings with those from Wilkin, Grant, Wadena and other counties.
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The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post. To post a comment you will need to register. Or, if you're already registered but have not included your true, verifiable identity with your registration, you will need to update your account to include your identity. Effective Dec. 1, 2009, all posts appear with the commenter's true identity, which must be verified by site staff. Those who registered prior to Dec. 1, 2009, should be aware that once you update your information with your true identity, all prior posts under your user name will also indicate your true identity. If you do not wish to link yourself to prior comments, you should register again with a different user name.Posted by bohica15 (Bill Johnson) on September 11, 2008 at 10:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Lets not be fooled by the Sheriff's comments that responding to calls on the east side of the county took an hour to respond too. As we drive the county roads we all know that deputies are on patrol in these areas, not sitting in Fergus Falls waiting for the next call.
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