New sheriff takes reins
Year in Review
By Frank Bradley

The official swearing in for his full four-year term will take place on Monday, but already, Joe Shook has taken the lawenforcement reigns of Clay County.

He started last Friday, appointed as Interim Sheriff by the county commissioners to fill in the unexpired term of Tony Woody, who has retired and is getting ready to move to his new 500-acre ranch in Kentucky.

Still, while Sheriff Shook has been on the job just a few short days, he has been putting in long hours. On Monday, he and Deputy Melvin Cantrell handled two cases of folks with stolen checks, a stolen dog, a funeral procession and a committment to a mental hospital, among numerous other calls and complaints.

"It's going to take a little while to get everything moving and everything the way I want it, but I'm determined to supply the county with the kind of lawenforcement it deserves," Shook told me on Tuesday. Sheriff Shook said he has

assessed the department's personnel and equipment and is pleased with the level of knowledge and committment on the part of the staff as well as the good condition of the department's vehicles and equipment.

"The equipment here is good with what we've got of it," he said. "We're short about two cars, but the ones we have are in good condition. The oldest one is an '03. The commissioners did a good job keeping the cars up, trading them in on a regular basis and not letting them get too old where they would have required a lot of maintenance."

The sheriff said he understands the county is in the middle of a budget year, and that he's not going to ask for a lot now.

"We'll make it through the winter with pretty much what we've got," he said. "Although, I'm going to ask for one more deputy now."

The sheriff said he feels the top issue in the county is drugs and alcohol. It all comes down to that, he said. He also said his goal was to

put more emphasis at the school house. "Everybody in the county is focused on the school," he said. "It's the place to stop problems, when they're young."

Sheriff Shook said he wants to work hand-in-hand with the REACH foundation to reduce domestic violence and child abuse. And he wants to increase the visibility of the sheriff's department throughout the county. Deputies out in the communities round the clock, making contact with the public, heading off problems before they develop into major ones.

"We're going to enforce the law," he said. "We're going to supply the people of this county the type of law-enforcement they need and do it as cheaply as we can. But it is going to take resources."

Sheriff Joe Shook spent 30 years as an officer with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol before retiring. Twentytwo of those years were spent in Clay County. He knows the law. He knows the county. He's a take-charge guy.

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