Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — Ironwood Public Safety Department Director Andrew DiGiorgio knows Ironwood is not alone with its drug problems.
On Sunday, a Duluth television station offered a report on the meth scourge in nearby Ashland, Wis.
“It’s a problem across the country,” DiGiorgio told the Ironwood City Commission last week in presenting his annual report.
It may appear there is a bigger drug problem here because law enforcement has been so effective in tackling the issue, making many arrests, he said.
DiGiorgio praised the Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team for cracking down on meth and heroin dealers and said IPSD officer Matt Sterbenz spends 56 hours out of 80 strictly on drug enforcement. “He’s very good at what he does,” DiGiorgio said.
The statistics presented by DiGiorgio from GIANT are sobering for a small area.
In 2015, GIANT launched 40 drug investigations and 18 are still active. Sixteen people were sentenced for various drug cases and 24 are awaiting dispositions.
Ten people were sentenced to the county jail, three went to state prison, one went to federal prison and two received probation.
There were 30 heroin-related charges, with nine cases involving marijuana, six relating to illegal pills and four involving cocaine.
There were only two meth charges, as GIANT had shut down many meth houses in previous years.
One investigation that originated in Ironwood resulted in seven people being sentenced in federal prison for conspiracy to deliver meth, the largest meth-related case in Upper Peninsula history.
One of the drug cases involved a conviction for involuntary manslaughter when a man died from ingesting heroin.
On the city front, DiGiorgio said felony cases are up and much of that is related to drugs.
Officers requested 155 felony and misdemeanor warrants in 2015, with 150 being issued. He said IPSD calls for service have increased about 4 percent since 2014.
A total of 147 citations were issued for 2015, mostly through road patrol.
Through the department’s community policing initiative, officers are getting into the schools and working with school staff members and students on safety and anti-drug programs.
Sgt. Adam Clemens is the school resource officer. He and the other officers spend 24 hours per week in Ironwood schools.
“We can build relationships and assist our youth in becoming productive members of the community,” DiGiorgio said.
Officers also conduct school training sessions that include lockdown drills, severe weather drills, medical emergency training and safety responses. A program last summer addressed driving while texting, displaying a wrecked vehicle that resulted from a local inattentive driver.
There were also programs in 2015 on babysitting, seniors’ safety, business concerns, fire safety, bike safety, community drugs, child passenger safety and Camp 911, which addressed emergency situations for children.