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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

The Chilton County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Program is holding a silent auction on Oct. 8.

Bids will be taken from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Clanton Conference and Performing Arts Center on the local Chilton-Clanton campus of Jefferson State Community College with winners being contacted individually to pick up their items.

Some of the items in the auction include a A.J. McCarron signed Alabama shirt and football, a five-night stay at Port St. Joe or Wind Creek, rods, reels and fishing tackle, landscaping equipment, jewelry and gift certificates to local businesses.

“All the reserves of the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office have to buy their own equipment,” Todd Wilson, captain with the reserve program, said. “We are in need of body armor, radios, tasers, things like that, so we are raising money to buy that for all of the reserves that we have.”

There are 14 reserve officers and six reserve chaplains in the program.

All reserve officers complete 10 weeks of training.

“Once they get through that 10-week training period, then they can kind of do what other deputies do as far as helping arrest people, doing (event) details and things like that,” Wilson said.

Reserve officers work with deputies on patrol on a volunteer basis.

Wilson said the reserves also work events in the county, such as the Chilton County Fair and the Peach Festival. This reduces the need to pay deputies’ overtime.

“Last year, we saved the county almost $200,000 in hourly wages,” Wilson said.

Wilson has been a part of the reserve program for 17 years.

“I live in Prattville, so it was close by,” Wilson said. “I like the department. I like the community.”

Many in the reserve program live either in Chilton County or within 30 minutes of the county, Wilson said.

Further details about items available at the auction will be shared on the Chilton County Sheriff’s Office Facebook Page.

The Clanton Conference and Performing Arts Center is located at 1850 Lay Dam Road.