 To aid in the fight against drugs, Letcher County Sheriff's Office will be seeking donations for a new canine unit. Wednesday we spoke with Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Steins about their fundraiser. I've always anticipated trying to get a canine, but unfortunately with the costs and our budget and property tax, you know, at all time low here collection, you know, this revenue in the office is extremely tight, you know, we don't receive any kind of state assistance or any assistance from any other agency or county government. We solely operate on collection of tax property tax and inspecting vehicles, serving papers, you know, and etc. So I've always wanted one, but it's not really been a thing that we knew we could pay for out of budget. So we decided to see if we could raise the money with the community. With help from organizations ARC, MCHC, ARH hospital and the community, Letcher County Sheriff's hope to purchase ZARA, a two-year-old German shepherd from Czechoslovakia. Stein says donations are needed as they will need to transform their force. That canine operates as another employee, you know, we have to feed it. We have to have housing. It'll have fat bills. We got to get a different type of vehicle to have it in. We got to have a vest for it. It has to have equipment just like a normal deputy does, you know, it'll have Narcan just like we do, you know, in case it gets into drugs and has some issues with that or overdose or anything. The reason we want to utilize a canine is this one is a drug. It'll help us with the war on drugs. It'll help us. It'll alert us on narcotics odor, but this dog is also a tracking dog. It will be able to track a lost child, a senior with dementia, mental health issues that wanders off will be able to utilize that dog and track that individual. And it'll also help us track criminals that run from us. To donate, you can visit the Letcher County Sheriff's Office at 6 Broadway Street in Whiteburg, Kentucky. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Korgel.