Recently re-elected Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly said his first term as sheriff will set the tone for his next four years.
In 2008, Kelly won only two more percentage points than his Republican opponent Steve Kane. In November, Kelly won a more definitive victory with about 59 percent of the votes compared to Kane’s 41 percent.
“(In 2008), we were both relatively unknown,” Kelly said. “This time around, the voters had a chance to really look at what we’ve done over the past four years — it was a landslide.”
Kelly’s priorities include keeping patrols in areas that need more law enforcement presence and adding more deputies to the ranks, he said, adding that he plans to continue “changing drug culture” in Athens County.
Kelly said he’d also like to see the Ohio University and Athens police departments crack down on drugs on campus and in the city as harshly as he said he’s done in Athens County.
In addition to impeding the use of drugs, Kelly said deputies will begin patrolling two local injection well sites to ensure there is no illegal waste dumping.
Kelly spoke with Athens County Commissioners Lenny Eliason and Mark Sullivan on Monday morning to announce his plans to prevent illegal, out-of-state dumping in Ladd Ridge Road and River Road injection well sites; however, he didn’t say what the punishments would be.
“We’re going to have our deputies check the wells periodically to see if there’s any illegal dumping going on,” Kelly said. “There are no set times or set people; we just have three shifts at work right now.”
Al Blazevicius, who helped create proposed hydraulic fracturing regulations for Athens County, said he is happy the sheriff is taking action because it is important to fight illegal dumping.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he said. “I’m really glad to hear he is acting on some of our recommendations already. We’ll have to take it one step at a time though.”
In addition to his law enforcement methods, Kelly said he will continue running his office the way he knows best, despite allegations from Kane during the campaign that Kelly hadn’t been running the office cleanly.
About a month before the election, an audit from Ohio Auditor Dave Yost said Kelly misused his Furtherance of Justice account, which is meant for costs the Sheriff would incur while on duty.
Kelly said he would continue to charge the same type of expenses to the account, but he will stop reimbursing the expenditures; he said the reimbursement is what alerted the auditor before.
In late September, an Albany man, David Jenkinson, accused Kelly of assaulting him, and Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn sent
the case to Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office for investigation.
Blackburn said that although the case has yet to be closed, he has faith in the Attorney General’s Office to handle the investigation appropriately.
Overall, Blackburn said his outlook on the county aligns with Kelly’s.
“We’ve lost lives,” Blackburn said. “Drugs are the prominent problem in Athens County (in addition to) property crimes in the area, like burglary and theft. (Kelly’s) had a lot of crime solved.”
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