GJPD costs top $5K for Cheney visit

The local agency with the most security responsibility in Friday’s private political fundraiser involving Vice President Dick Cheney will eat more than $5,000.

Grand Junction Deputy Police Chief Harry Long on Tuesday said his department committed 250 man hours — nearly half of that overtime — during Cheney’s two-hour campaign swing through town for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

Long said total cost came out to $5,309.

It’s unknown how much money was raised for Schaffer’s campaign on Friday.

Grand Junction police had 42 officers working the event, many of whom were reassigned from normal duties such as the department’s Street Crimes Unit or the Community Advocacy Program, officials have said.

Chief Bill Gardner said the agency won’t seek reimbursement for efforts during the closed-to-the-public event.

Costs will be paid out of the department’s general fund, Long said.

Some 75 people from GJPD, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, Grand Junction Fire Department, Colorado State Patrol and U.S. Bureau of Land Management assisted the U.S. Secret Service on Friday.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Heather Benjamin said the department can’t definitively say what overtime was accrued during Cheney’s visit.

Twenty-two deputies worked the event.

“Our best guess on overtime is about $2,500,” Benjamin said.

Final figures for the Grand Junction Fire Department — which had six people with an ambulance and engine company on standby — were not available on Tuesday.

Local agencies picked up to tab in October 2004 — more than $10,000 — for another campaign event headlined by Cheney at Walker Field.



Reach Paul Shockley at pshockley@gjfreepress.com.