Forfeited funds help pay for bicycles for sheriff’s office
By PATRICK CLOONAN, Indiana Gazette, October 19, 2022
Photo: Gathered Tuesday at the Indiana County Court House to show electric bicycles purchased by the Indiana County District Attorney’s office for the county Sheriff’s office are, from left, Deputy First Class Nick Stone, Deputy Bob Mundorff, District Attorney Robert F. Manzi Jr., Sheriff Robert Fyock, Deputy First Class Steve McCully and Corporal Eric Lychalk. Courtesy Indiana County Sheriff’s Office.
Shortly after 11 a.m. on July 10, an Arion Lightning LS-1 private plane crashed at the Indiana County/Jimmy Stewart Airport in White Township.
It prompted Indiana County Emergency Management Agency to dispatch Indiana Fire Association, Homer City Fire Department, the Indiana County Sheriff’s Office and Citizens’ Ambulance.
“He was conscious,” Sheriff Robert E. Fyock said of the pilot, the only person onboard.
Fyock said his deputies were able to respond quickly to the crash and “assist without being out of breath (including) lifting the plane off of the entrapped pilot.”
It is one of the tasks made easier for those deputies with four new QuietKat E-Bikes purchased by the Indiana County District Attorney’s office and given to Fyock’s office during this year’s Jimmy Stewart Airshow.
“These new electric bikes were a necessary replacement of mountain bikes that have been used by the sheriff’s office for a number of years,” District Attorney Robert F. Manzi Jr. said. “The updated equipment allows the sheriff’s office to conduct their routine operations in a safer and more efficient manner.”
Manzi said no taxpayer dollars were used to purchase the bikes.
“The entire purchase was made from funds forfeited from drug dealers in Indiana County,” Manzi said.
“Four sworn and certified Indiana County deputies will be able to patrol on the new E-Bikes,” Fyock said.
The sheriff said other uses of those new bicycles have included assisting with a missing person on the Ghost Town Trail, and going off-road to complete a welfare check on a homeless person near a trailhead.