BULLHEAD CITY – Rodney Head and Robin Holmes patrolled Bullhead City for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) long before the Colorado River community incorporated 40 years ago in late Aug., 1984.
Holmes had a harsh introduction to the desert after moving from coastal California to work the Bullhead City district for the MCSO in 1976.
“It was so desolate and the wind was like 400 miles an hour and the dust flying everywhere,” Holmes recalled. “It was kind of a culture shock to see. It was like ‘well, this isn’t San Diego and Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.’”
Head graduated from Kingman High School and was working at his father’s auto repair shop when he was hired as a deputy during the administration of former Sheriff Dave Rathbone, and assigned to the Bullhead District in 1977. The Sheriff’s Office helped protect the community while early Bullhead City leaders worked to cement municipal building blocks following incorporation.
“They had to establish a City Council and hire a City Manager who then had to hire the police chief and build up the department,” Head said. From the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office came Tom Ennis, Bullhead City’s first police chief.
Head, Holmes, Mark Moss, Tiana Gledhill and several others transferred from the MCSO over to the BHCPD when it began operating roughly four decades ago.
“I was invited to the handover ceremony at midnight at the police station here in Bullhead City and I went and we did our handing of the baton for lack of a better way of putting it,” Head remembered. “And the police department took over and the sheriff’s office was then responsible for everything outside the corporate limits.”
The BHCPD handled a child homicide in its infancy.
“Unfortunately, I think it was like 2 days into our new department and we had a young lady, Sandy Sunderland, who was kidnapped while walking home from school,” Holmes said. He said the killer was caught months after the kidnapping, convicted and sent to prison.
Arvid Hoppas was appointed to serve as the City’s first Mayor and Mike Love years later became the City’s first elected Mayor. Initial years of incorporation involved periods of instability and infighting, recall elections and turnover in the City Manager’s Office.
“You certainly have those growing pains and obviously you have different personalities and those kinds of things,” Head said. “It’s the maturation of any organization, including a police department or a city.”
Holmes said he’s proud of police involvement with the Jam Zones and the bicycle rodeo for kids that the late Carrie Conner managed for years following its introduction decades ago, improving community quality of life.
“There’s more things to do today. There’s recreational opportunities and more employment. When I look at the parks they have built for the kids, that makes me feel good because that’s one of the things that we always felt they needed, something for the kids to do, a place for them to go and play,” Holmes said. “That’s the part that I like to see is the fact that they are taking an interest in the youth of Bullhead City.”
Head has just been re-elected after joining the Bullhead City Council following 37 years of community law enforcement activity. He literally helped Bullhead City be born, and grow up.
“It really, truly is kind of my legacy, my life, my professional life anyway, you know, outside of my family and my personal life. I’m very proud of what we did here in that first year, in the first ten years and throughout,” Head said.
“I’ve watched Bullhead City become a vibrant community with so many things for our residents and for our visitors also. But, I’m always more focused on what’s going on for our residents, the people that are living here. It makes me proud every day that I see the things that have been accomplished in this community.”
Holmes said he is grateful he survived his initial culture shock 48 years ago and completed a career in Bullhead City.
“I’ve asked myself did I make my 20-plus years with the Bullhead PD count. And I did,” Holmes said. “I think to myself that working at the Bullhead P.D. and the sheriff’s office in Bullhead City, I would have to say was the greatest experience of my life.”
A public celebration of the 40th anniversary of incorporation will be held at Bullhead Community Park on Sunday, Aug. 25.
Dave Hawkins
