News Photo by Julie Riddle Deputy Ryan Frost, left, and Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith discuss recent hiring increases outside the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.

ALPENA — Nine months after the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office elected to pull deputies from road patrol to help cover a severely understaffed jail, the office and jail are now nearly fully staffed, and new employees are sticking around, said Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith.

In January, the office announced that a shortage of corrections officers meant Alpena County residents would see almost no deputies patrolling county roads because they were needed in the jail to fill slots left vacant by departing jail staff.

Low salaries and rigorous demands of the job contributed to the corrections vacancies, the Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

Now, all but one road patrol officer are back on the streets, after county commissioners OKed a pay hike for corrections officers that helped fill those positions.

Jail administrators are completing the hiring process for several corrections officers, and others are completing training, but the jail should soon be up to its full-staff level of 18 COs, Smith said.

And the new hires seem to like the job and want to stay, he said.

The jail has, at least for now, seemingly sidestepped a high turnover rate that has plagued many jails nationwide in recent years and led to this week’s announcement that the state will close a second prison this fall, in part because of too few workers.

Alpena County raises also helped attract road patrol officers to bring that staff to nearly its full size of 14 deputies.

When Smith took over as sheriff this spring upon the retirement of his predecessor, the sheriff’s office had six vacant road patrol positions, he said on Monday.

He has filled five of those positions, including two officers who will officially join the Alpena County staff once they finish police academy.

The new COs and deputies come from diverse backgrounds, some with years of policing experience — including officers out of Texas and the Ohio Department of Corrections — and some new to law enforcement, Smith said.

Deputy Ryan Frost, who signed on as an Alpena County deputy this summer, came to the county with 17 years of police work behind him, including downstate and in Presque Isle County.

“The pay is good, the people are friendly, and the office is gorgeous,” Frost said, calling the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office the “nicest place I’ve ever worked.”

With the help of the county commissioners, Alpena County deputies make as much as — or, in some cases, more than — officers in surrounding agencies, a factor which has proven significant in signing up officers choosing between several job offers, Smith said.

The county also approved a contract allowing the Sheriff’s Office to lease eight new road patrol vehicles that will be delivered as soon as they’re built.

With officers driving the vehicles non-stop, day in and day out, the current fleet of vehicles — the newest a 2018 model — have logged enough miles to be a safety hazard when officers need to respond to calls at high speeds, Smith said.

New vehicles and new equipment, including recently-approved body-worn cameras, provide additional incentive to officers eyeing Alpena County as a possible employer, he said.

The majority of new employees grew up in Alpena or have some connection to the community, he said, and want to do the job because they care about their hometown.

If current trends continue, Smith said, the Sheriff’s Office will return quickly to 24/7 road patrol and provide the full police coverage the community expects.

“When they make a call to 911, they’re going to get a police officer,” Smith said. “That’s what the community deserves. And we’re going to get to it. Soon. Very soon.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.