I am a product of the Vancouver school system, starting from Lieser Elementary School to finishing my education earning an associate’s degree at Clark College.
At the age of 24, I was the youngest licensed general contractor in the city of Vancouver (at that time). I have been a builder and business person in Clark County for the last 58 years and currently own and manage a small office and retail complex in Hazel Dell at Stockford Village, along with my family.
My first interaction with law enforcement officers in the late 1960s occurred when a neighbor to one of our construction sites “borrowed lumber” to build a small building in his backyard. Our most current iteration with our law enforcement officers occurred last week when my daughter-in-law needed assistance to remove a mentally ill person at a tenant’s suite. Over these many years in business, I have requested hundreds of calls for services from law enforcement folks and all have been answered.
Here are a few examples:
• Construction material “walking away”
• The “borrowing” of valuable electrical tools and equipment
• Folks who appeared mentally ill assisted to receive medical help
• A bank robber being captured on our property
• Drug users hiding in our restrooms and refusing to leave
• Military veterans suffering PTSD being assisted at the Veterans Affairs hospital
• And most serious of all in my opinion, our tenant, a lawyer, who clients were shot and killed by their neighbor with the shooter then coming to our building to kill her — except for the fast action by the Clark County Sheriff’s Department who locked down our office building, thereby permitting no harm to come to our tenant or the other tenants of our building.
I think it is only fit and proper to thank our men and women of law enforcement who allow us to safely go to work, take our kids to Little League ball games, to sleep and awake safely, etc. The next time you see a law enforcement officer, give them a thumbs up and say “thank you for protecting us” or just a “well done!”
Larry Pruitt
Vancouver
