PONDERAY — Kootenai City Councilor Robert Dressel approached Ponderay at the latter city’s Monday council meeting about a partnership that would see the Ponderay Police Department patrol the neighboring city.

The Ponderay City Council’s reception to the proposal was lukewarm, with Mayor Steve Geiger asking for more details from Dressel about a budget. Geiger said the department costs the city around $3,600 a day with a yearly operating budget of around $1.36 million. 

“I’ve been here for 16 years, and this is about the third time this has come up,” Geiger said. “If you guys start working together and you want to bring me in with Joe and maybe have a few discussions to get more information. We could do that and then come back.” 

On Monday, Dressel said he didn’t have a set budget, but that the Kootenai council was set to meet Tuesday. At the Kootenai meeting, no budget was discussed as councilors wanted to know what Ponderay was willing to do, before discussing the monetary aspect of a deal. 

Dressel said he would try to get more information from Ponderay to move the discussions forward before the council’s next meeting. 

"My feeling is that [Police Chief Joesph Kaufman] going to get some feedback from the mayor and council sometime after the meeting," Dressel said. “I might be able to figure that out a little bit more with them, to see what they're thinking, right, so we know where the next approach is.” 

Previously, Kootenai had a contract with Sandpoint, which saw its officers patrol the area. That partnership began in 2019 but ended in 2023 after the Lake Pend Oreille School District discontinued funding for a second school resource officer, who went to Kootenai Elementary as well as other Sandpoint-based schools.  

In his address to the Ponderay council, Dressel handed over materials about the partnership with Sandpoint and requested the two parties to work toward a similar agreement. He noted that under the former agreement, all revenue from tickets went back to Sandpoint, rather than Kootenai. 

“There was another way of making money for Ponderay,” Dressel said. “So, a couple eyebrows went up, but they had a very busy agenda last night.” 

During the Kootenai council meeting, Dressel said one of the concerns shared by Ponderay Police Chief Kauffmann, was if the department would have to take on calls relating to the elementary school. Dressel, a former Sandpoint police officer, said those calls often require a significant amount of time for officers to handle.  

The request comes at another period of low staffing for the Ponderay PD. Kaufman said on Monday that with one officer at the POST academy and another needing surgery, the force is down to five officers on the streets. 

Dressel said the primary reason for asking for the partnership is for more police presence to act as a deterrent.  

"One of the things I used to do is go over to the high school in the mornings, because I was  I was administration, so I didn't even have to go out, but I would sit in the parking lot and write a report or do something, just sit there and everybody's going slow,” Dressel said with a laugh. “Police presence is a major thing. Just having a police officer in the area is a big deterrent.”