BELFAST — It was standing room only at recently re-elected Waldo County Sheriff Jeffrey Trafton’s swearing-in ceremony, which took place at the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office (WSO) Jan. 4.

There were over 60 people packed into the small room to watch Trafton raise his right hand and swear his oath, with a number of law enforcement, including members from WSO, Belfast Police, Maine State Police, the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center (whose members baked over 100 cookies for the event), and Waldo County Correctional Facility.

The ceremony began with the swearing in process, which involved (now-retired) 30-year District Court veteran Irene Blood, who he first met in 1984, during his tour of Waldo County as an incoming Maine State Trooper patrolling the area.

“So it’s very fitting that Irene is here swearing me in today, I really appreciate it, Irene,” he said. Blood also swore Trafton in for his first term and swore previous Sheriff Scott Storey in twice.

Chief Deputy Jason Trundy was also reappointed by Trafton at the ceremony.

“So I hereby appoint you for another four years, to keep me out of trouble,” he said to the crowd’s amusement.

Trafton also had kind words for Trundy, who he met seven years ago when he first came to the WSO as the chief deputy. Trundy was serving as lieutenant at the time, and Trafton recalled the many duties that fall to the chief deputy.

“Being a chief deputy, it’s the job at the [WSO]... you’re the jack of all trades, you’re responsible for everything, and on top of keeping the sheriff out of trouble…. Jason [Trundy] is a methodical thinker, which sometimes I’m not, so it’s been a great balance to have Jason as an advisor and a friend at the [WSO] and I look forward to serving with him for another four years.

When Trafton turned to fully address the crowd, he began by expressing his appreciation of the large group that had gathered to see him sworn in.  

“I’m overwhelmed today by the turnout,” Trafton said when he turned to address the crowd following his official swearing-in.

“I met folks over the last year that I hadn’t had the chance to meet, so that was a huge learning experience for me and I really appreciate all the support, and I have to say, the folks from the Reentry Center and patrol division… I’m a true believer… I knew we were doing good things here at the Sheriff’s Office, but in my campaign, where we really had to focus and talk about what we were doing - I think we’re doing it good; we’re doing a good job,” he said. “So thanks for the support of all of you guys…. I promise that we’ll continue to serve honorably the citizens of this county.”

Trafton also presented the Sheriff’s Office with a token of he and his wife Wendy’s appreciation. He told the crowd that Wendy had discovered a veteran in Bucksport that made wooden flags and they had ordered one for the department, to be hung in the patrol office. Current WSO Lieutenant Matthew Curtis, who Trafton said has been doing a great job for the last four years, accepted the gift on behalf of the Office.

Before ending his address to the room, Trafton once again offered his gratitude.

“So again I want to thank everybody for coming today, this is really heartening to me to see all the support and I want to thank the folks who supported my campaign, there is a lot of you folks here, I want to thank my family, my family was a big supporter, Restorative Justice, the folks at the Reentry Center, Volunteers of America, the county commissioners, members of the law enforcement community, friends, family; it’s mean a lot. So I look forward to the next four years, it’s going to be a great time.”

As for what he is most looking forward to in the next four years, Trafton said it’s continuing with the programs that the WSO kicked off in the last four years and continuing to focus on domestic violence issues.

“We want to continue our evaluation and improvement of the Reentry Center in all aspects. I’m really excited about the work we’re doing with drug addiction and we started a relatively new thing, we’re organizing a task force around the mental health issues. Dr. Hughes (of Seaport Community Health Center) and a lot of the community folks are coming together; we’re putting that together as we speak,” he said.

“We’re tired of waiting for the State and for the federal government to step up and I think we made a big impact in the drug addiction problem, we haven’t solved it, but I think we’re making an impact, and we want to do the same thing for the mental health situation. I’m still encouraged that maybe some help will come from Augusta and Washington, but we’re tired of waiting and we’re just going to do it ourselves,” he said of the new initiative.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com