Lenzner, Olsen campaign at village board

Two candidates for Shawano County sheriff, George Lenzner and Brad Olsen, were in town during the Wittenberg Village Board meeting on June 20.

Both candidates were there to campaign for the upcoming Aug. 9 election. Lenzner currently serves as the chief deputy in Shawano County, while Olsen serves as the Oconto Falls City Police Chief.

Lenzner said that he has been with the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department for just over 34 years.

“I started out in the jail and worked my way up to chief deputy,” said Lenzner. “I have been chief deputy for six years now.”

Lenzner pointed to getting involved with smaller villages if he is elected as sheriff.

“I am looking forward to working close with the village if I win,” said Lenzner. “We want to get the same officer in these rural communities. We want you to know the officer patrolling the village.”

He added that a major point for the sheriff’s department lately has been drug enforcement.

“We do have a drug task force that we started the first of the year that involves the sheriff’s department, the city police department, the Tigerton Police Department and the Stockbridge-Munsee Police Department,” said Lenzner. “This year we are up to 14 search warrants, which is twice the amount of search warrants that we have done in a normal year.”

Lenzner claimed that with the search warrants, they are up to 40 arrests.

“The reason that we started doing this at the beginning of the year is because overdoses have skyrocketed,” said Lenzner. “Last year we had nine overdose deaths in Shawano County and that pretty much doubled and tripled from the years past. Most of those overdoses involved fentanyl.”

He added that there are already four overdose deaths in the county this year.

“We go after fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin — we are going after the big time dealers,” said Lenzner. “We can’t have that in our communities, because with drug abuse comes violent crimes and so on.”

Finally, Lenzner praised the Shawano County Drug Court.

“Drug court works because it gives users consequences if they don’t succeed,” said Lenzner. “If they do use, they go to jail. It gives them motivation to get clean. It has been going on for five years, has been a big success and we will continue that.”

Olsen followed Lenzner and spoke to the village board about his experience and goals for if he gets elected.

“I started at Shawano City PD and then went to the Oconto County Sheriff’s Department, where I was a canine handler there,” said Lenzner. “I have been chief of police in Oconto Falls for the last eight years.”

Olsen said that due to two of his officers being injured on the job, he has taken time patrolling.

“Since August, I have been working the patrolling rotation to pick up the ends,” said Olsen. “Every other weekend, I am on patrol yet.”

He pointed to getting additional resources to schools in the county if elected.

“Where I work now, I created a school resource officer position,” said Olsen. “It is hard to come up with funding for an extra officer. All I hear is that people want to cut public safety.”

He added that the school was more than willing to pay for half of that position.

“That would be my solution to funding — to approach the schools in the area and see if they would be willing to pitch in to get another resource officer,” said Olsen.

Olsen echoed Lenzner’s words saying that fentanyl and methamphetamine has exploded everywhere.

“This is our first awards banquet that we decided not to give out life saving awards for NARCAN saves, because we would have had 30 or 40 officers come up to get awards,” said Olsen. “Additional canine units are needed to get that meth and fentanyl out of vehicles, because there is almost no odor to humans.”

He added that the drug task force will have to stay.

“I don’t see meth or fentanyl going away from the area,” said Olsen. “The drug court is great to try and get those people with addiction on the path to recovery. It is really hard to kick meth and fentanyl.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com