Ok, to all of you who have basted me for my shameless plugs for Mike Bustle - please take the following as a public service because you all need to read this! Mikes wife Kathy just found the letter Mike received from the City Manager when he finished being the Chief at Lake Lure. I dont care if your a Republican, Democrat , Independent or a purple dinosaur, if after reading this you dont want this kind of leader as your next sheriff and want to miss this opportunity to really have the best for the care and safety of our community, I have no words for you. For the rest please share, share, share and lets make a real difference by electing Mike Bustle Buncombe County Sheriff!!!! TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT by H.M. “Chuck” Place III, AICP The Legacy of a Chief Is a short eight years enough to establish a legacy? According to my well-worn dictionary, a legacy is something handed down or bequeathed by a predecessor, without any defined time frame. So, yes, eight years is plenty. And that’s fine, because in just eight years, Mike Bustle has created a living legacy in the members and operations of the Lake Lure Police Department. By now, everyone in town knows that Chief Mike Bustle is retiring after a 30 year career in law enforcement in North Carolina starting as a patrol officer in Carrboro and Asheville, through several positions within the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department and a 10 year stint in the State Bureau of Investigation. When Mike came to us in 1998, the LLPD had a generally poor reputation (largely undeserved) as nothing more than a traffic enforcement agency in a speed trap town. Morale was very bad and departmental turnover was high. The department was the topic of discussion all over town during the council / mayoral campaigns the previous year. Mike started with the attitude that a great place like Lake Lure deserved a great police department and the public should know who their officers are and what they really do for the town. He instituted a strong community policing program and put his troops on the road checking private property and getting to know the townsfolk. One of the principle accomplishments during Mike’s tenure was the implementation of an aggressive training and education program within the department. He created close ties with the new NC Justice Academy in Edneyville, enlisting several of their instructors in the Lake Lure reserve police force, to the great benefit of our officers. He sought out and hired promising new young officers and gave them a comprehensive level of training while encour aging the older officers to advance through internal promotions. In a few short years, Lake Lure’s reputation as a town with a young, intelligent, well trained police force was second to none in the state. Because of this reputation, we have been successful in receiving numerous grants for equipment and programs helping us to maintain a high degree of readiness. Mike is now ready to go on with his professional career, combining his love of law enforcement with his passion for teaching. He will be training law enforcement professionals around the country and the world (including teaching a course in Moscow this summer). Our very best wishes go with Mike along with our thanks to Kathy for being a fantastic police chief’s wife through everything. We will miss Mike very much, but hope he will stop in from time to time. (In fact, we might just make him a reserve training officer - I think we may have a vacancy!)
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 01:02:53 +0000