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FALCONER – A local manufacturing plant is starting a fundraising campaign in an effort to support agencies such as the Jamestown Police Department and Wounded Warriors in needs that they have.
Jamestown Police K-9 Officer Erik Kraft spoke during a campaign kickoff Wednesday morning at Rand Machine Products on Allen Street Extension. Kraft says that he’s extremely grateful of the partnership that Jamestown Police has with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office regarding the usage of the Sheriff’s bomb-sniffing K9s.
The eleven-year K9 handler, however, says the City will need a dog of its own that can be trained to specifically detect explosives as well as gun casings.
“The way the world is, things have been getting very very busy for us, and the crime rates with our gun cases that we’ve had have gone way up,” Kraft said. “With the dog that I have, we don’t have the opportunity to look for gun casings that maybe were shots fired, or bomb threats, or anything that might be going out in the community.”
“We’ve been trying to come together to come up with an idea of how we can get an explosives dog for the City of Jamestown.”
Kraft explains that the City has one dog, K-9 Kallie, who is specialized in narcotics and patrol investigations. The officer, however, says that the work can be “overwhelming.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Kraft detailed.
Rand Machine Products CEO Kurt Grimm says that the company has already contributed $5,000 to the campaign. In addition, Grimm says that any money workers contribute to the campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the company.
A committee will begin to set up various events in an effort to raise the money. Grimm says that employees are not required to contribute to the cause.
Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone, Jamestown Police Chief Tim Jackson and Ellicott Police Chief William Ohnmeiss were also on hand for the event.
Jackson expressed his appreciation for the company’s efforts in a brief comment.
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