Page 6A � February 6, 2013 Mustang Times � www.mustangpaper.com

From Page 1ADivision: Sheriff Randall Edwards brought back K-9 division after taking office in 2008

-Staff photo by Jon WatjeLt. Jason Glass, Canadian County Sheriff s Offi ce K-9 supervisor, in his offi ce on Monday. Lt. Glass has been with the department since 2006.

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there was no K-9 division at the department and he vowed to reinstate the program. Since the program began back up in 2009, it has resulted in several major drug busts on Interstate 40.

One of the department’s handlers, Lt. Jason Glass, has been with the Canadian County Sheriff ’s Office since June of 2006.

“We didn’t have any canines when Sheriff Edwards took office,” Glass said. “I was here, and have handled a dog at a difference department and he knew that so when he came, he asked me if I was interested in getting back into the canine program. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity along with another Deputy.”

The department started with two canines and eventually moved up to its current total of five.

They consists of Sgt. Jason McWhorter and K-9 Eddy, Sgt. Cody Palmer and K-9 Blik, Dep. Jeff Allen and K-9 Jack and Dep. Kyle Bridges and K-9 Lyas.

“For the size of our department, we are doing really good for having five dogs,” Glass said.

The division stays busy as four of the five Deputies are assigned to patrol Interstate 40 while one patrols other parts of the county. There are four, 10 hour shifts, so someone from the division is out seven days a week.

Glass has worked alongside his canine, Gunner, for the past three years. Gunner just turned five years-old this past December.

“He stays at home with me and is another member of my family,” Glass said.

“It is a very big responsibility. There is only a few people that can come over and feed him for me if I am out of town. You just can’t have

By the numbers:68,000 The number of dollars in drug cartel money the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office K-9/Criminal Interdic-tion Division seized in 2012.

244 The number of citations the division wrote in 2012.

26 How many pounds of marijuana the division seized in 2012.

14 How many pounds of meth the division seized in 2012.

12 How many pounds of cocaine the division seized in 2012.

your neighbor come over and take care of him. And they are not pets, they are very loyal and protective.”

Each handler for the Canadian County Sheriff ’s Office has to go through a special training program.

“I had prior training with a prior dog, but when I got a new dog, I had to go back to the school for that particular dog,” Glass said. “When you get the dog, he is pretty much already trained, you just need to learn how to handle him.”

Trainers usually receive canines when they are around a year to 18 months-old.

“The department receives the dogs when they are about two years-old,” he said. “We usually retire the dogs around eight to nine years-old.”

The dogs also specialize in other law enforcement skills.

“All of these can track, whether it is a fleeing felon or a missing person,” he said. “They will do handler protection and article searches. Say if someone threw a gun out of a vehicle window during a pursuit, we can go back to that general location find that evidence. It is pretty amazing what they can do.”

Canadian County Sheriff ’s Office canine handlers train twice a month with their dogs.

“It never ceases to amaze me, even in training, what these dogs can do,” Glass said. “We will make our own

tracks for training them and you try to make them longer and harder for the dogs. We try to make them as hard as we can and they still figure them out.”

With I-40 traveling through the heart of Oklahoma, drug traffickers are known for transporting drugs through the state to stash houses for distribution to the city streets.

“It’s just a fact that the majority of the drugs we get are coming from Mexico,” Glass said. “They come up to Arizona and then head east on I-40. So most of the drugs are going east and the money used to purchase those drugs are usually going back west, ultimately back to Mexico.”

Although Glass said 2012 was a slower year for drug seizures, it still netted some notable busts.

During 2012, the division seized 12 pounds of cocaine hidden in a bumper compartment of a vehicle during a traffic stop. Another time during the year, they found 14 pounds of methamphetamine, which was also located in a secret compartment.

Just last month, over 200 pounds of marijuana was found in a car after being pulled on I-40 near Banner Road.

In 2012, the division seized $68,306 in U.S. currency used to purchase drugs. They also seized four vehicles, one stolen vehicle,

made 39 warrant arrests and wrote 244 citations.

Glass said members in his division are trained to notice the signs of someone who may be a drug trafficker.

“We are trained to read body language and we look for certain indicators,” he said. “We have stop so many cars that we have a basis for what we call the ‘innocent motoring public.’ Say I stop 20 cars, about 19 of those are like anyone else. They may be a bit nervous at first about getting a ticket, but when we give them a warning, they aren’t nervous anymore. But that one guy, even after telling him he’s getting a warning, they still act nervous. Something tells me something isn’t right.”

Glass said it is common for drug traffickers to travel with a companion.

“These guys usually do not travel alone,” he said. “We will get the driver’s story of where he is going and what he is doing. Then we will talk to the passenger, and

nine times out of ten their story will be completely different.”

The canines are trained to smell an odor for drugs and when they do, they alert their handler.

“The dogs are not looking for drugs. When they smell a certain odor and alert us, we award them,” Glass said. “With my dog, I have a special ball that I give him when he alerts me of that odor. And when I give it to him, I make him think that I am taking that ball from that area where he smells that odor.”

Most of the time, suspected drug traffickers will grant Glass along with other Canadian County K-9 units consent to search their vehicles.

“Unless the drugs are in the trunk of the car, a regular officer will not be able to find them,” Glass said. “So, when these guys put the drugs in these special compartments in the wheel wells or bumpers, they won’t

think we will find them.”Gunner and the other

dogs have also helped the department find suspects on the run.

“One time one of our Deputies pulled over a car that had 14 illegals and they all ran in different directions after they were pulled over,” he said. “Gunner and I located five of those individuals a mile and half down the way.”

The division usually helps other agencies in the county like Mustang, El Reno and Piedmont.

“We will go anywhere within reason to help another agency that needs a dog,” Glass said. “Our division is about protecting and serving the citizens and I truly believe in that. Our numbers as seizures have recently been down compared to what they were when we started the program back up, but I think that is because the word about us patrolling this area is out there.”

planning to build a new wind farm just west of Piedmont called the Kingfisher wind farm. They built the Canadian Hills wind farm near Calumet, which went online last December.

“We started by developing a project near Calumet called Canadian Hills. It is finished and became operational on December 21,” said Dahvi Wilson, communications manager for Apex Wind Energy. “We managed the construction of it, but it does not belong to us anymore and we do not operate it.”

Wilson said there are 135 turbines in the Canadian Hills farm.

“When we were working on that project, we met with the commissioners and made a bunch of good relationships,” Wilson said. “There was a lot of excitement from the landowners, there was a lot of excitement from the surrounding cities. It all went very smoothly.”

However, Apex has not received the same response from some citizens in the Piedmont area regarding the

new Kingfisher wind farm, which they are planning to build west of the town this year.

“This project will be between Okarche and Piedmont,” Wilson said.

“During the development stages of that, we started to hear more and more questions. Many of the landowners were excited and signed up very quickly to be a part of the project. It was only when were initially planning to put some turbines inside the Piedmont city limits on the northwest side of town when we started to hear concerns.”

Wilson said the Kingfisher wind farm would be about the same size of the Canadian Hills Wind Farm.

“We are estimating about 120 turbines, so maybe a little smaller,” she said. “But it will produce the same amount of power, which is 300 megawatts and can power 80,000 homes.”

Wilson said the actual date when the first turbine goes up for the Kingfisher Wind Farm depends on several factors.

“We are hoping to start

construction this calendar year,” she said. “We have projects all over the country, and different places have different rules regarding these types of projects. In this particular case, Canadian County doesn’t have an ordinance nor do they have zoning. We have to sign a couple of agreements with the county before we begin, like road use agreements and floodplain agreements. We are now in the process of completing those agreements with the county.”

Wilson said Apex has always signed road use agreements for their projects, which means they would agree on which roads to use for industrial traffic and would pay the county for any road damage from their use.

“We had those agreements when we built our Canadian Hills project and we like to have those for all of our projects,” she said.

Canadian County Commissioners tabled a decision to form a zoning and planning committee for unincorporated parts of the county last month. District

1 Commissioner Phil Carson said he did not believe that wind turbines were ‘proven’ and that the new wind farm could hurt potential growth in his district.

Some residents voiced concerns about property values and other issues if the wind farm was constructed.

“There are always a lot of concerns and questions with a project like this,” Wilson said. “We expect people to have questions and we are doing our best to answer them. There is a lot of good information about wind energy, it has been around for a long time. It is all over the world.”

Wilson said many landowners have been receptive of the project.

“The land owners that are

part of this new project are still excited and they want to see this happen,” she said.

“A lot of them have already signed leases and this project was actually easier to sign leases for than our Canadian Hills project.”

According to Apex, the impact of the new wind farm will benefit many.

They project $3 million per year in property tax revenue and $75 million over the lifetime of the project. They also project that landowners will earn about $2.7 million per year in royalty payments and that 90 long-term jobs would be created from the project.

Wind energy is becoming more and more popular in Oklahoma.

According to a recent

study by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Oklahoma now ranks sixth in the nation for wind-generated energy. It ranked eighth in 2011 and added 1,127 megawatts of wind capacity in 2012.

Texas leads the nation in wind capacity with more than 12,200 megawatts installed. The Lone Start State is followed by California, Iowa, Illinois and Oregon.

“It is a real testament to American innovation and hard work that for the first time ever a renewable energy source was number one in new capacity,” said Rob Gramlich, AWEA’s interim CEO. “We are thrilled to mark this major milestone in the nation’s progress toward a cleaner energy system.”

Wind: Spokeswoman says company planning to break ground on project this yearFrom Page 1A

Wind energy’s economic impact on Canadian Co.:Here is what Apex Wind Energy estimates with the addition of their Kingfisher Windfarm:

• $3 million per year in property tax revenue ($75 million over the lifetime of the project).• Landowners will earn about $2.7 million per year in royalty payments. • More than $2 million per year to Okarche School District.• $500,000 per year to the Piedmont School District. • 90 long-term jobs created or supported. • $446 million in the project’s capital investment in the Canadian County region.• About $1 million per year in sales tax to local cities through economic spill-over effects.