Sheriff's Office gets a new helicopter

From left to right: Capt. Mark Schimpf with the St. Lucie Sheriff's Office, Santa Rosa Sheriff Wendell Hall and Lt. Chris Vandeventer with the St. Lucie Sheriff's Office.

Look! Up in the sky! It's Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office's new helicopter!

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office added a helicopter to its ranks on May 8. The helicopter was a part of a fleet of four belonging to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. The helicopter, a 1970's-era OH-58A+ Bell Jet Ranger, was donated by St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara at no cost to Santa Rosa County.

The helicopter will be used for drug eradication and special circumstances, such as missing people and natural disasters and will not be flown on a regular basis for patrol functions.

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office has been without its own department air support since Sept. 3, 2003, when its fixed wing aircraft crashed during a marijuana eradication mission in the north end of Santa Rosa County.

Sheriff Wendell Hall is pleased to receive this gracious donation from a fellow agency and is currently exploring ways to fund the fuel and maintenance that is necessary to operate the helicopter. The funds to operate this new addition will be met through drug seizure funds and grants that are available to the Sheriff's Office.