CHELSEA, Vt. (WCAX) – Orange County Sheriff George Contois has been on the job for only a little over a year but he is already announcing he will not be seeking reelection.
“I haven’t seen my wife in several months,” Sheriff Contois said. And it’s for that personal reason, rather than the turmoil that surrounds his department, Contois told WCAX he will not be running for sheriff again in 2026.
He has been in law enforcement for more than 50 years. “We know the folks that are here, we know the problems that are here, we know the roads that are here. I think it is very beneficial for the towns that are around us to continue with their contracts with us,” Contois said.
For county sheriff’s departments, contracts with local towns help pay the bills. Orange County deputies currently patrol in six towns. But recently, the town of Chelsea, the county seat where the department is located, decided to contract with neighboring Windsor instead. Chelsea officials say the Orange County department was stretched too thin to meet residents’ needs.
“Obviously I was saddened because Chelsea is our hometown,” Contois said. He acknowledges staffing issues within the department limit coverage options he can offer to towns. Simply put, he needs more deputies. “I’d like to bring on at least two, I’d be happy with one.”
But being a sheriff also means managing the books and Contois says the department was in financial disarray when he took over. An independent audit confirmed a booking mess left by the previous sheriff, Bill Bohnyak. And Contois says more bills will be on the horizon, like the need for an upgraded dispatch center, and an aging fleet of vehicles. “One of the things you want to do is you want to pay your bills and you want to pay them as quickly as you possibly can. You want to stay on top of that. And if you let that lapse, you really lose your credibility in the neighborhood,” Contois said.
Contois said when his tenure as sheriff is over, he will sleep well knowing that the department is in a better financial standing now than when it was when he first got here.
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