GROVETON -- Trinity County’s new sheriff was hard at work this week organizing his department and responding to the needs of local residents.

“It’s been going fast and furious here over the last few days, but it has been going good,” Lee said less than a week after being sworn into office.

Lee took over the reigns of the sheriff’s department on Thursday, June 19, replacing former Sheriff Steven Jones. He was appointed by the Trinity County Commissioners Court during a special meeting.

Jones, who himself was appointed to the post in April 2007, stepped down June 19 in order to accept the post of Chief of the Trinity Police Depart-ment.

Lee, who defeated Jones in an April Democratic Primary runoff election, is currently running unopposed for the office in the November general election. Prior to Jones’ resignation, he was set to assume the sheriff’s post as soon as the November vote was canvassed.

Lee said he is still in the process of hiring new deputies to fill vacancies created by a number of officers who resigned earlier this month. Many of those officers have since joined Jones at the Trinity Police Department.

“I don’t have a chief deputy right now. I’m probably going to wait a month of two before I select someone to fill that post,” he said this week.

Lee said he wanted to finish hiring his deputies and then evaluate them all before selecting a number two man for the department.

“As far as sergeants and lieutenants, I won’t be having any,” he said. “I have a real problem with having a person in a supervisor’s position when the only person they supervise is themselves.”

Lee noted that because the Trinity County Sheriff’s Depart-ment is small, he and a chief deputy should be the only supervisors needed.

“There is no extra pay involved for being a sergeant or lieutenant and this is a very small department, so we really don’t need those positions,” he explained.

A retired supervisor with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), Lee spent his previous law enforcement career based out of Beaumont.

However, he has strong ties to Trinity County, having grown up here. He is a 1969 graduate
of Groveton High School and his father, C.M. “Dick” Lee, served as the local sheriff from 1966-1972.