[1]Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza is backed up by his appointed leadership team as he addresses his employees.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
NAPAVINE – Newly elected Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza took the stage yesterday in front of his employees offering some insights into his priorities over the next four years.
With a new sheriff comes a new motto, vision and mission, he told them.
The motto: “Public safety through professional service.”
“What it really means, it’s what we’ve been doing,” Snaza said.
The 49-year-old Napavine area resident and longtime member of the sheriff’s office introduced his chosen undersheriff, Wes Rethwill, who retired as a captain from the Washington State Patrol to join Snaza’s team. Snaza described Undersheriff Rethwill as someone with a ton of experience he’s known many years.
“About three and a half years ago, we met and talked about this,” Snaza said. “He’s an incredible individual, and he took a chance on me.”
Rethwill told the assembled group he was very excited and proud to get back to his roots, noting that in the early days of his career, he worked as a reserve sheriff’s deputy.
“My job is to get you folks the tools you need, so you can better serve the citizens of the county,” Rethwill said.
The afternoon gathering took place in the expansive sanctuary of Bethel Church of the Assemblies of God in Napavine, as previous sheriff’s office annual meetings have been. While the parking lot was filled with patrol vehicles, a half dozen state troopers were covering the roads for the deputies.
“I could not be here today without all of you,” Snaza said.
He spoke of less segregation between the operations side and the corrections side of the office. He spoke of upcoming leadership training for the newest employee all the way up to the top.
Joining him on the stage for most of the program was his chosen command staff.
Along with Rethwill, were newly appointed Field Operations Chief Bruce Kimsey, continuing Corrections Chief Kevin Hanson, continuing Special Services Chief Stacy Brown, continuing Director of Property Management Isabelle Williams, newly appointed Field Operations Commander Dusty Breen and Corrections Captain Jim Pea. Longtime Administrative Assistant Sherri Guenther is part of Snaza’s leadership team as well.
In the audience were two of former Sheriff Steve Mansfield’s command staff, Cmdr. Steve Aust who is now the detective sergeant and former Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber who will work as a detective.
Sheriff Snaza plans for deputies to work more closely with school children, implementing an Adopt-a-School program.
“I made a commitment during my campaign to our youth,” he said.
He spoke of how they can help the young people of the county see how the sheriff’s office is important to them.
Much of the afternoon was spent on the sheriff and the undersheriff handing out the numerous annual awards to employees and also two citizens. Among them, he gave Guardian Awards to two individuals.
“These are my awards,” Snaza said.
To Corrections Officer Kevin Dickey, for “(G)oing out there everyday and fighting the good fight for all of us, through drug court.”
To Detective Duke Adkisson, and his commitment to the community: “He will find you, hunt you down and take you to jail,” he said.
The others follow:
Employee of the Year
• Corrections Bureau: Corrections Officer Bill Wood
• Corrections Bureau Support Staff: Support Technician Noel Sharp
• Field Operations Bureau: Deputy Curt Spahn
• Special Services Bureau: Support Technician II Robin Merchant
Top Performer
• Corrections Bureau: Corrections Officer Stan Langland
• Field Operations Bureau: Deputy Gabe Frase
A Sheriff’s Unit Commendation was awarded to the Corrections Field Training Officer Team:
• Sergeant Joyce McCoy
• Sergeant Ricky Claxton
• Corrections Officer Sean Heppe
• Corrections Officer Tawnya Scharber
• Corrections Officer Gary Allen
• Corrections Officer Andrea Lowe
• Corrections Officer Tifanie Reynolds
• Corrections Officer Seth Sharp
• Administrative Assistant Carrie Breen
Citizen Service Medal
• Community members Clifford and Christine Clark were both recognized for generosity in donating over $10,000 to the Shop with a Cop Program.
• Darris McDaniel of Shop n Kart received this for the generosity of his ongoing donations to the Lewis County Memorial Fund, Shop with a Cop, and Lewis County Youth Scholarship Fund.
[2]Employees of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office line up for professional group photo.