After nearly three years of leadership from Calvin Beringer, the reins of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office patrol division have been handed off to 10-year veteran Nic Salois.

Salois, 34, joined the office as a reserve deputy at the end of 2002 before being hired on full-time in early 2003. Over the years, he worked his way up from deputy to corporal to sergeant in the patrol division.

“It’s a lot of fun, and probably one of the most interesting places to be in this office,” Salois said of the division. “It’s a different thing every day, no two days are the same, and you have the freedom of being able to drive in one of the largest counties in the state.”

The opportunity to head the patrol division came when Beringer retired as patrol commander about a month ago after serving in the position for nearly three years.

“As with any sort of promotion or appointment of this type, we always look internally to see if we have good quality people, and Nic has the work ethic, he’s well respected by all of his peers, he has a lot of common sense and is, I think, an all-around good fit for this position,” Sheriff Chuck Curry said.

Salois is still settling into the position he took over on Monday. He said much of his work so far has involved phone calls, answering emails and talking with the myriad people coming and going from his office.

“It’s definitely a change of pace for me, as it’s administrative as opposed to law enforcement out on the street,” Salois said, adding, “It’s going to be nice not having to work rotating shifts, I haven’t worked a steady shift in a long time.”

Although he said getting used to the new job will be a challenge, Salois said he was excited and planned to “ride this out as long as I’m welcome.”

The Sheriff’s Office is only Salois’ second employer. His only other job was with Sliter’s in Bigfork, where he started working in eighth grade.

“I worked throughout all my high school years working stock, working freight, and I was eventually the freight manager before handling purchasing at the end,” he said.

Salois lives with his wife, a nurse at the North Valley Hospital emergency room, their 8-month-old daughter and his two stepdaughters. He said his wife still works varying shifts, but they are more controlled than his were when he was still on patrol.

“It at least gives us family time on the weekend, pretty much guaranteed,” he said.

Beringer was coming off a nearly 20-year stint with the King County Sheriff’s Department in Washington when he moved back to the Flathead to take a job with the Sheriff’s Office. He had previously worked in law enforcement in Flathead County for seven years and, prior to that, had been in the Military Police.

“I’m just taking some time off,” Beringer said of his current plans. “It’s time for me to do some other things. I’ve got a couple small projects of my own I’m working on and I’ll probably do some consulting with a couple different organizations I’ve worked with in the past.”

He also said he is spending time with his family and “getting back to bowling a lot.”

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.