The city councils of Wellman, Riverside and Kalona each approved the law enforcement contract with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department for the 2025-26 fiscal year. At their recent meetings, each council approved the contract that enables the Washington County Sheriff’s Department to act as the primary law enforcement within those cities as they do not have their own municipal police force. 

For the cities, it allows them to have a law enforcement presence for much less than it would cost to fund one themselves while increasing the specialty resources and hours of availability in comparison to smaller departments. 

Washington County Sheriff Jared Schneider said that the collaboration has improved law enforcement presence and public safety throughout the rural portions of the county, “With the staffing levels we have now, we can look to be more proactive with traffic enforcement and things like that instead of being reactive or even having people available, because with the calls we have to respond to, maybe they’re not available to run speed enforcement at the important times of day for those communities.”

The cost of the contract is $158,187 for Wellman, $284,597 for Riverside and $336,451 for Kalona, a slight increase in costs for each city. The cost formula for each city is based on population. In previous years, a call quantity formula was used, but concerns of that model dissuading calls to bring costs down caused the department to adjust.