On St. Paul’s Rice Street, the old-fashioned beat cop concept is going modern, the Ramsey County sheriff said Monday.

With the opening of a sheriff’s community outreach office in the North End, some deputies will use electric bicycles to patrol in the area.

“Those electric bikes allow deputies to go into neighborhoods and meet people and cover a lot of ground without being exhausted,” said Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

The goals are to have people working in the office and in the area on community outreach, getting kids involved with sports and activities to keep them on the right path, and reducing crime in the area, Fletcher said.

Fletcher, elected in November after being ousted eight years earlier, had pledged to put a substation in the basement of Tin Cup’s restaurant at Rice Street and Maryland Avenue. Owner Gidget Bailey was talking about closing her restaurant after someone fired a gun in the parking lot and a bullet whizzed by her adult son’s ear. But with the sheriff’s promise, she said they would be staying.

Fletcher said in January he planned to open the substation in February, though he said Monday they were delayed as they searched for a building accessible to people who are disabled. Many old buildings on Rice Street are not and Fletcher said the location they found at Rice and Sycamore streets was their sixth try.

Some North End residents and business owners, who are concerned about crime, have worked for years to get a police station in the neighborhood again. And the new office was a community effort.

“It’s an outreach program, so they’re not going to be sitting in the building — they’re out in the community,” Bailey said. “It didn’t matter to me where it went. I just wanted our community to have it because we promised them something.”

BUSINESS DONATING OFFICE SPACE

It was Bailey who asked the owner of Ace Auto Parts, Don Kloek, if his business had space available and he offered up a 576-square foot building that sits on the edge of their lot.

The building was home to a Dairy Queen until the owner retired and Ace Auto Parts purchased it in 2009, said Rob Kloek, who owns the business with his father.

The office was previously a place where they sold used cars and they will still have some vehicles they’re selling in the lot, but they’re letting the sheriff’s department use the office space at no charge.

“We’ve been here since 1929, so we are part of the community and we’ll do anything we can to help,” Rob Kloek said Monday.

It cost less than $1,000 to get the office ready, Fletcher said.

The sheriff’s office purchased six electric bikes at $1,600 apiece — two are being used by deputies to patrol in the county’s parks, trails and lake areas, and four are for patrol in the Rice Street area, according to Fletcher.

SHERIFF SAYS HIS OFFICE HAS ROLE IN ST. PAUL

The sheriff’s office is asking deputies to travel on Rice Street — to be a visible presence — when they are going to and from their patrols in nearby suburbs or the sheriff’s office Arden Hills patrol station.

At the new Rice Street office, sheriff’s community outreach and intervention unit staff will use the space as their homebase. Fletcher said they’ll be recruiting volunteers to staff the office when they’re out in the community. Those interested can contact the sheriff’s office at 651-266-9333.

The sheriff’s office has contracts to provide police services in seven suburbs in Ramsey County. Is it their role to have a community outreach office in St. Paul?

Ramsey County Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo, who represents the area, said she loves “that (Fletcher) added e-bikes to the patrol, so they can connect with community” and she thinks the location is a good one.

“I know that there has been some safety issues, but I haven’t had a conversation to see how his office is going to work in partnership with St. Paul and the community,” MatasCastillo. “So for me, it will be wait and see how he handles it.”

Fletcher said it’s his office’s responsibility “to preserve and protect the peace” throughout the county.

“Ultimately, it’s about public safety and 50 percent of the taxes paid to run the sheriff’s office come from the citizens of St. Paul, so yes, this is a big part of our responsibility,” he said.