New police chief has his work cut out for him

Matt Ponusky is no stranger to the city of Grand Coulee. He served it as a police officer for about seven years, then transferred to Coulee Dam's police department at the end of 2023. Now, he's back - as the chief of police.

Hiring him ends a long slog for the city, which started looking for a new chief before longtime chief John Tufts retired in March, 2024. The post has been filled either by an interim chief or not at all since then. Turns out finding a chief of police is not too easy.

Ponusky (sounds like po-new-ski), 36, started in law enforcement when Tufts hired him. He'd been looking at Spokane's department after 10 years at Loomis, an armored car company, didn't provide any room to move up. He had the support of about half the onboarding committee at Spokane PD, but the other half wanted him to get more experience, he said.

That's when Tufts called, beginning his career in law enforcement.

Fast forward to April 15, 2025, and Chief Ponusky has a lot to accomplish while filling one of three officer slots in a department that used to have eight when the city contracted with the federal government for coverage of Grand Coulee Dam.

"My job is to ... make this department run as smoothly as we can and ... try to remain a department. I didn't want to see it go under," he said. "And, you know, I don't want to see the town bleeding money for it either."

Right now, the department is on budget to spend about $570,000 this year, Ponusky said in an interview May 22. "I think I can actually get it reduced, which is good," he said. "I think we're insuring 11 patrol cars right now."

He said they're in the process of getting all the equipment taken out of the extra cars in order to sell them, which would put the sale money into the city's funds and prevent further spending on insurance for them.

Before hiring him, he said, the city had explored asking the Grant County Sheriff's Office what it would cost to cover the city. He was told the cost would be about $850,000 a year, considerably more than the current budget.

Ponusky, who's salaried at $115,000 a year, said he and his wife have bought a home in Coulee Dam and plan to stay. But ultimately, he said, he wants to see the Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee departments combine.

And he's had that discussion with Mayor Ruth Dalton.

"I told Ruth, when I took this position, that that's where I see the departments in the future, especially with policing getting more expensive," he said. "I think, the small towns, it's either combine and have one police department that serves the area, or contract with the county. Financially, it's just not making as much sense as it used to for small towns to have different police departments. So, I think Ruth was in the same mindset."

In the meantime, there's still a room full of old evidence that's no longer needed, and another room full of old case files that need to be sorted through to throw out the old ones.

And that kind of work has to fall between answering calls for current police work, which, with only three officers, doesn't let up much.