Fighting for Our Fair Share: How a Highway 212 Traffic Study Will Fund Powder River County and Boost Deputy Pay

As a candidate for Powder River County Sheriff, my core mission is to ensure our community is safe, our emergency services are dependable, and our leadership is accountable. But to achieve a gold standard of public safety, we have to talk about resources. It is no secret that Powder River County has been historically underfunded by the state.

Every single day, Highway 212 bears the burden of heavy commercial traffic, out-of-state travelers, and high-volume shipping. Our local roads take the beating, and our local emergency services answer the calls when accidents happen. Yet, we aren’t seeing the state infrastructure and public safety dollars necessary to offset this immense pressure.

If elected, I intend to change the narrative by introducing a proactive, data-driven approach to state advocacy: The Highway 212 Traffic Safety and Funding Initiative.

The Plan: Concrete Data over Guesswork

We cannot successfully lobby the state capital for more money based on complaints alone; we need undeniable proof. My platform commits to immediately seeking independent grant funding to conduct a professional traffic volume study and vehicle classification count on Highway 212.

This study will track exactly how many vehicles use our corridor, what types of heavy commercial trucks are passing through, and the true impact they have on our county.

Turning Traffic Data into Dollars

Once we have this independent data in hand, we will possess a powerful lobbying tool. We will use this information to aggressively advocate in Helena, showing state lawmakers exactly how much state traffic our local infrastructure supports. This data is the key to unlocking the correct state appropriations that our underfunded county has been missing for years.

Securing our fair share of state funding does two major things for Powder River County:

1. Implements Real Highway Safety: It allows us to work alongside state agencies to launch targeted traffic safety initiatives, reducing accidents and keeping our families safer on rural roads.

2. Delivers Higher Pay for Our Deputies: A properly funded county frees up vital budget space. For too long, rural counties have struggled to retain law enforcement officers due to competitive pay gaps. By bringing state dollars back to Powder River County, we can invest directly in our personnel. Higher pay for our deputies means better retention, stronger morale, and a highly experienced, dedicated team protecting our homes.

Professional, Reliable Leadership

Public safety is about more than just responding to calls, it’s about managing a budget, hunting down grants, and fighting for the resources our community deserves. Our dispatchers need national-standard training, our deputies need to be equipped as elite first responders, and our law enforcement personnel deserve to be paid fairly for the dangerous work they do.

By addressing the Highway 212 funding gap head-on, we can protect our taxpayers, secure our roads, and properly compensate the men and women who put on the badge every day.

I ask for your support and your vote in the upcoming Republican primary on June 2nd. Together, we can build a safer, stronger, and more resilient Powder River County.