The Baker County Sheriff’s office is competing for a $1,500 grant that would help the agency buy a tracking dog that would be used in the patrol division and for search and rescue operations.

The competition was done by online voting, Oct. 24-31. People could vote once per day, and the sheriff’s office, through posts on its Facebook page, encouraged residents to vote daily.

Winners of the week-long competition will be announced Nov. 3.

Sheriff Travis Ash said he’s been working for more than a year and a half on a plan to start an Aftermath K9 unit.

“I’m wanting to bring a search dog into the sheriff’s office that searches for live people or evidence,” Ash said.

The focus of the new K9 is to find lost people, suspects and evidence, Ash said.

The sheriff’s office currently has a privately owned dog who belongs to one of the members.

“He’s trained to go out and will locate people in front of him,” Ash said. “So, when he finds them, he will sit or bark or make a noise or he’ll run back to his handler and take the handler to the missing person.”

Ash said he wants to add to the department’s resources a dog that’s “more of a search and rescue based dog, where we’re going out and when they locate the missing person or suspect they will either come back or sound off or they sit with the person.”

“I’m looking for a dog that’s going to seek out suspects, seek out lost people, and evidence. That’s the route I want to go with one,” Ash said.

K9 units vary in price. Ash said he’s anticipating a cost of $15,000 to $20,000, with the ongoing cost of caring for the dog.

“We’re applying for grants and seeing if we can get that alternate source of funding out there to purchase the animal,” Ash said.

The sheriff’s office has also applied for other grants, including one from the Farm Credit Service Bureau.

Ash said the county’s search and rescue department is moving toward nonprofit status, which would make the agency eligible for more grants.

“I’m hoping by this time next year we’ll have this up and running,” Ash said of the K9 unit. “But it just depends too; it depends what dogs we locate and what’s available out there for us and that’ll fit our needs that we’re looking for.”