After a divisive race for Jefferson County Sheriff, when deputy Joe Nole beat incumbent Dave Stanko, the office was left in limbo.

“We never saw (Dave Stanko) after the election,” Nole said. “He put (undersheriff) Art Frank in charge, and I was the elected, but I couldn’t start yet. We’re starting from scratch right now.”

On his first day of work, Nole intended to start slow. But he soon noticed his email inbox piling up, a stack of mail that hadn’t been opened, and a list of people waiting to sit down for meetings.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to come in and move my office. That’s all I’m going to do,’” Nole said. “I kind of know what the responsibilities are, but some of the little things that are popping up are new to me. I’m just playing a little catch-up.”

But it didn’t take long for Nole to dive into business. The first thing he did was reshuffle some positions. Frank moved from undersheriff to patrol duty.

Nole said he is still looking to see who might be his No. 2.

“I’m still perusing the budget,” Nole said. “We have four sergeants, so I’m assigning some tasks out to them and taking some on myself.”

Nole said one of his first orders of business was to do away with accepting Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden program grants, and that was a point of contention between he and Stanko during the election.

“We were partnering with Border Patrol,” Nole said. “We’re not doing that grant; deputies aren’t doing patrols for the border patrol.”

He also has worked to finalize a Washington State Health Care Authority grant to authorize opiate treatment medication in the jail. That grant contract was approved by county commissioners Jan. 14.

“He’s been supportive of our direction so far,” said David Fortino, superintendent at the Jefferson County jail. “I’m really hopeful that we continue a lot of the good work we’re doing. Mental health and substance abuse are both issues that I’m trying to tackle in the jail, so the fact that it’s on his agenda to take care of, that fits in with us.”

Nole also is setting up planned trainings for deputies in domestic violence response, critical incident training and mental health training.

“Part of our job is to try to solve problems for people,” Nole said. “Our job is to get people help ahead of time so there aren’t so many in the jail.”

Above all, Nole is focusing on improving morale at the sheriff’s office.

“The other day, one of the detectives came in and joked for us to be quiet, because laughter was not allowed in the office,” Nole said. “He was being sarcastic, but he mentioned how nice it was to have everyone getting along. And that’s just in a week and a half.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Nole said he hopes to get settled in his position and get to work with other county agencies in improving safety in the community.

“I’m really excited about working as a team with the other county agencies,” he said. “There was a newly-elected training down in Olympia, and a group of us went down, me, James Kennedy, Greg Brotherton. Ruth Gordon and Stacie Prada were instructors. We all know each other, but it was nice to sit down and talk about how we want to keep the team together and communicating, regardless of what our position is.

“The main focus of making this a good place to live and giving the taxpayers the best bang for the buck.”