By Carol Stiffler

Former Luce County Sheriff Kevin Erickson became the 911 and Luce County Emergency Management Services coordinator in 2022, but spent his last full day on the job on Friday, September 15. His position has been advertised, and Erickson said he’ll continue light duties until his replacement is named.

Erickson is stepping away for personal reasons, he said.

At his final Luce County Emergency Planning Committee meeting, Erickson tried to solve one more emergency situation: identifying who is responsible for placing fire numbers at new addresses, and transitioning the work to the department.

Plotting new addresses with a global positioning system and then installing a red fire number sign on the property had been a task handled by the 911 coordinator, but that was an error, Erickson learned. The duty is assigned to the county’s Equalization department, and a recent state audit alerted Erickson to the error.

In the meantime, people who have purchased plots of land in the area must wait for the installation of 911 fire numbers on their property before they can build on it. Quite a few people are in that situation, and have been making numerous phone calls to Luce County requesting help to get the situation resolved.