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An agreement for law enforcement services between the Town of Copan and the Washington County Commissioners was considered on Monday.

Sheriff Scott Owen said the Town of Copan and their attorney approached the Sheriff's Office at the beginning of the year about the services. He said this came about after the town's failed attempt at implementing a police department.

According to the Sheriff, there are issues in Copan that town officials want to see addressed. He said there has been a couple spikes in criminal activity in the area, which is why Copan feels as if they should proceed with extra patrol that they can afford.

Essentially, an extra duty assignment will be available to off-duty deputies at the Washington County Sheriff's Office to provide the law enforcement services in Copan. The town will pay $40 an hour to the deputy that assumes the assignment.

While it will not provide full-time patrols, the Sheriff's deputies will work a certain amount of hours each week when they take the assignment. If the Town of Copan's budget gets to a point where they can afford full-time services, Sheriff Owen said they can always sit down and re-negotiate the services being offered. With that being said, he said they will still continue to provide patrol and law enforcement services for Copan even when the extra deputies are not on to serve.

Code enforcement will be up to the Council in the Town of Copan. Sheriff Owen said he does not see a ton of citations being given by the extra on-duty deputies. If any citations are issued, he said they will be traffic infractions or animal control infractions.

The law enforcement agreement was approved. The contract runs through June 2020.