IRON COUNTY SHERIFF Ryan Boehmke, left, along with coordinator Dave Painter have restored the county’s work van program for those sentenced to community service. The program had been shut down and then defunded six years ago. (Jim Paul/Daily News photo)

CRYSTAL FALLS — The Iron County Sheriff’s Department has brought back the community service work van program after a six-year hiatus.

The work van program, which resumed Feb. 14, gives individuals who have been sentenced to community service in lieu of going to jail an opportunity to fulfill that obligation.

Iron County Sheriff Ryan Boehmke said the once-popular program ended in 2019 when the deputy who coordinated the program announced his retirement. The county did advertise for a replacement coordinator, but then the COVID-19 pandemic came along, he said.

The program ended up defunded and even the van was sold off.

Since then, many of the people sentenced to community service, especially on the east side of the county, were having a difficult time finding places to fulfill their obligation, Boehmke said. Also, some of the people do not have a driver’s license, which makes getting to a location difficult as well.

“So they are not doing it,” Boehmke said. “This gives them an option — they just need to show up and we are going to put you to work.”

Boehmke, who became sheriff in July 2022, said he always wanted to bring the work van program back.

“It is nice to see people doing the community service within the community that we all live in, and not having that program makes it difficult,” Boehmke said.

A lack of volunteers in the community created a need for the work van program as well.

“Last year and the year before during the winter I had some conversations with the senior centers around the area and they were having a hard time finding people to clean the sidewalks and we did not have the program,” Boehmke said. “They were even asking for help even from inmates in the jail which is not a safe alternative.”

Boehmke suggested resurrecting the work van in a monthly report to the Iron County Board this past fall and got the commissioners’ total support.

“I am very pleased with the board we have — they are very proactive with the sheriff’s department,” Boehmke said.

Things then moved quickly, he said.

Part-time Deputy David Painter was approached about coordinating the program; he also is involved with marine patrols in the summer. After Painter agreed, Boehmke went back to the board for official approval to resume the work van, securing $26,000 in the 2025 budget.

“People I have talked to in the community really had good feelings about the work van when it was here before,” Painter said. “They are really excited to see it coming back to do the projects nobody else is doing right now.”

The next step was finding the actual van; however, finding a passenger van that holds up to seven people proved to be no easy task. When one was finally located, the sheriff’s department used $15,000 from its discretionary fund and the board approved an additional $20,000 in December.

The last step was to create an official policy for the program.

Now that it is operational, a judge will use Michigan Public Act 511 at sentencing to give community service instead of jail time. For now, the work van uses only those sentenced to community service — no inmates are eligible.

The county probation officer will make contact with the sheriff’s department. Participants are charged a one-time registration fee of $25 and they are also charged $5 a day to ride the van.

Municipalities that take advantage of the work van are charged $4 per hour per person that they use, while that charge is waived for nonprofits.

All money generated will be returned to the county to offset costs.

“This program is not intended to be a money maker,” Boehmke said. “It is more intended to be a community service, it does not just help people that need to do their hours.”

The program has started out slowly, operating two days a week and mostly around the courthouse so far on tasks such as cleaning floors and clearing snow. Plans call for the work van to operate every other Saturday for participants who have jobs and maybe expand the number of days the van is available.

Boehmke and Painter both see things getting busy as the weather warms up. Boehmke said he can see the work van doing work at Pentoga Park this year and would also like to see some roadside trash picked up.

Any nonprofit interested in using labor from the work van is urged to call Danielle Cunningham in the probation office at 906-875-0117.