Mineral County Sheriff Mike Boone has decided to run for the office in this upcoming election. Boone took over as acting sheriff after Tom Bauer resigned on Nov. 14, 2017. He was appointed the position by the county commissioners and will finish out Bauer’s term until January 2019.

Boone decided to run for the position in the November election because he felt, “It’s time in my career that I take the reins.”

“The community has always been good to me,” Boone said, “and I try to be good to the community and keep things going.”

He was undersheriff for nearly eight years and so he’s familiar with the job and the area. The big difference is before he could turn to Bauer for help, and “the buck stops here now,” he said.

With the economy down and crime rates up, he knows his department’s job is a struggle. Currently, he’s working six days a week and is always on-call. But he doesn’t want to hire an undersheriff right now.

“I want to pick someone outside the department and I don’t want someone to quit their job to work here and if I’m not elected that wouldn’t be fair to them because they would lose their job since that’s an appointed position,” he said. “So we won’t see an undersheriff until after the elections.”

Meanwhile, he said they should have the jail open by the beginning of March and get the inmates back into Mineral County. The jail was closed in November due to a staffing shortage.