Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office Begin Fundraising For K9 Patrol Program

CERT is proud to help the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office with its K-9 fundraiser. Following the following link in the story to donate. 

A Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office Press Release

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office has recognized a need for the agency to better serve the citizens and visitors of Mahaska County. After much research, over the past several months, the Sheriff’s Office has decided to pursue a K9 patrol program. The K9 program will assist the Patrol Deputies with article and evidence searches, building searches, tracking (both fugitive as well as lost persons), fugitive apprehension, and narcotics detection. The K9 team (dog and handler) will also participate in educational programs for civic groups, businesses, and organizations. Deputy David Wilke has been selected as the K9 handler for the Sheriff’s Office. It is anticipated that Deputy Wilke will attend K9 training in March of 2022.

Because the current Sheriff’s Office budget will not support the initial start-up costs of this type of program, the Sheriff’s Office has decided to kick off a fundraising effort to raise $55,000 towards this project. This amount will cover the cost of the dog, equipment, specialized vehicle, and training/certification for the K9 team. Any money’s gathered in excess of this amount will be placed into a K9 maintenance account. The Mahaska County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has agreed to assist the Sheriff’s Office with this fundraising effort. Any individual, group, organization, or business interested in donating to this project is asked to send their tax-deductible donations to the:

Mahaska County K9 Project
%Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office
214 High Avenue East
Oskaloosa, Iowa 52577

Mahaska County CERT Facebook Page With Donate Option