To the Editor:

This is the Paul Harvey part “the rest of the story” and some important facts that many of the Hershey supporters might not know. In 2008 the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit had already been shut down for some time. There was no money to fund the purchase of a dog or the training for a deputy and no public support as we have now.

The K-9 unit was going nowhere.

However with the help of then deputy Bill Carlisle, and lets say an anonyms donor who purchased the dog along with training for a deputy and the then fairly new sheriff Kevin Wells, who along with these few others realized the value and importance of a K-9 unit, got the program back on track.

Yes, it was Kevin Wells who then reinstated the K-9 unit for the county in 2008.

So lets all stand up and give Kevin Wells his due credit, for it is he who helped save the K-9 unit when he reinstated the program in 2008.

Also let us realize he has tough decisions to make and a job to do and if shutting down the K-9 unit for a short time is one of them, then we should trust our elected official to be doing the best he can with what he has to work with.

I can only image how hard it must have been for him to shutdown the very program he was responsible in giving life to.

Last and most important although there was little to any public support for the K-9 unit in 2008. This is not the case in 2014. The people have shown without a doubt that they understand the value and importance of a K-9 unit at the county level. Hopefully our legislators have been watching and in the future act accordingly.

And that Paul Harvey “is the rest of the story.”

Gregory Caron

Winthrop