Published: July 09, 2009 09:43 pm      

Sheriff’s substation move concerns senior citizen

BLUEFIELD — Bill Toone gets around pretty well in his personal motorized scooter chair, but he expressed his concerns for other senior citizens of the Bluewell and surrounding area who have become accustomed to using the Mercer County Sheriff’s substation in Brushfork, but will soon have to go to a satellite office in the Bluefield municipal building, or to the Mercer County Courthouse.

“I’m sort of a spokesman for the senior citizens in my community,” Toone, 83, said. “I’m all right with everything but my legs, but there are a lot of people worse off than me. Moving that office from Brushfork to Bluefield is really going to be a problem for a lot of people.”

Toone retired to Mercer County in 1990 after working as a heavy equipment operator in Maryland. He was born in North Carolina, raised in Illinois and served in the U.S. Army infantry in Europe during World War II. He received a silver star and three bronze star medals for valor during the war.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” Toone said. “The heroes are still over there. I was just a kid doing my job. I try to help people out. That’s why I wanted to express my concerns. It’s easy to park at the sheriff’s office in Brushfork, and easy to get up that ramp to take care of your business. Parking in Bluefield and at the courthouse in Princeton is always hard to find.

“I live on Route 20 about a mile away from (First Community) bank, and almost every evening, I’ll see two deputy sheriff’s tearing up through there,” Toone said. “It just makes sense to me to put the deputies out here in this end of the county where they’re needed.”

Mercer County Sheriff Don Meadows said that he decided to close the Brushfork substation because the facility in the Bluefield municipal building, “will be used by more people.” Meadows said that cost wasn’t a deciding factor. “The Brushfork substation is an inconvenience to many people,” Meadows said.

“If Mr. Toone or any other citizen has concerns about access to the Bluefield office or to the courthouse, they can call us and we will work with them to help them,” Meadows said. “There aren’t many county sheriff’s offices that provide an option for people to pay taxes any place other than the courthouse. It just makes more sense to have the (substation) office located closer to where more people are.”

Meadows said that his department doesn’t have funds available to staff a satellite facility like the one in Brushfork on a full-time basis. “I had concerns about my employees who were working out there in the Brushfork facility,” Meadows said. “In Bluefield, if something were to happen, a uniformed officer could be in the office in a matter of seconds.”

Meadows underscored that if anyone has concerns about access, they should call his office. “The positive benefits of the move far outweighed the negatives,” Meadows said.

Meadows said that the substation in Bluefield served the citizens during his previous eight years in office, and he thinks that it will serve well again. “Just contact us if you have a problem with access,” he said.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com