DRUG BUSTS HELPING ERWIN OFFICIALS BUY EQUIPMENT, IMPROVE FACILITIES

ERWIN - Armed with money from drug deals gone bad, Unicoi County Sheriff
Kent Harris has added a fleet of new cruisers, renovated a dilapidated
vacant building downtown and beefed up security at the Unicoi County
Sheriff's Department at a cost of more than $150,000. "We've purchased
seven relatively new vehicles for the Unicoi County Sheriff's Department,"
Harris said Friday. "We had no storage to place items securely in from
drug-bust proceeds and from seizures or items located from break-ins, so we
are in the process of renovating the old Rule/Brummett Automobile Company
building on Church Avenue near the (Unicoi County) jail."

Harris has renovated offices, rewired the sheriff's department and added
bullet-proof glass, "all at the expense of drug dealers," Harris said. "Why
not let the drug dealers and the criminals pay for all this instead of the
law abiding citizens of Unicoi County?"

Replacing the vehicles "was more about safety than anything else," he said.
"When I came into office we had only three cars with less than 100,000
miles on them. We now have 12 cruisers with the majority having less than
50,000 miles on them."

Built in the 1940s, the new storage building, "was an eyesore in downtown
Erwin. Most people wanted the county to tear it down. We put a new roof on
it and we are renovating it with the help of inmate labor and it will fit
our needs for years to come," Harris said. "We are going to add new garage
doors and then we"ll have a secure storage building to house confiscated
items, cars and equipment."

The sheriff's department recently was awarded $144,000 from proceeds of the
sale of a drug house where a marijuana manufacturing business was being
processed on Pete Creek near the North Carolina state line.

Other improvements to the department and the purchase of other new vehicles
could happen in the future, Harris said. "With proceeds from drug dealers
and criminals," he said.