After 35 years in law enforcement, 11 as Jefferson County Sheriff, Jim Adkins is officially retired and the man taking his place is former undersheriff Marc Heckathorn.
“Honesty, integrity,” said retired Emergency Manager Mark Carman about Heckathorn. “He has hard work ethics, and he gets things done, so people like to follow him.”
“He has the same heart that I do,” said former Sheriff Jim Adkins. “We are two totally different people. We handle situations differently, but he does have a caring heart for actually working for the people and that is what I loved about him and how he helped the citizens of Jefferson County.”
Heckathorn is a hometown guy, a Madras grad and served as undersheriff to Adkins for 11 years.
“Sheriff Adkins is honest and trustworthy,” Heckathorn said. “His word is gold and what he’s put into me, even our prior sheriff was all about service. We are here to serve the community.”
Adkins officially passed the torch – badge, actually – Thursday.
The thing he will miss the most is the people.
“When you come to me and you want information or you need help doing something, I will do everything within my power legally to help you and I loved doing that,” Adkins said. “That’s the part that I am going to miss.”
From boat patrol in 1986 to corrections deputy, patrol deputy, sergeant, sheriff, now retired.
“If it wasn’t for god helping and guiding me all these years, I would not be standing here before you on top of the world, being able to retire and I am very thankful for that,” he said.
Now, there’s a new sheriff in town.
“I am going to take a bit of his wisdom and knowledge of not leaping in too quickly, but there are a lot of things I wish to accomplish once we get through the next election year,” Heckathorn said.
Right now, Heckathorn is completing Adkins’ term as Sheriff, but he will officially run for the position in May 2022.
