Brendan Nienhuis has been selected as the new Golden Township deputy.
Nienhuis graduated from Hart High School and in 2022, worked as a summer marine officer. In May of 2023, he graduated from the West Shore Community College police academy, and was hired full-time by the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO).
Deputy Nienhuis has already worked a season in Golden Township where he learned what the needs of the community were. Deputy Nienhuis is currently working in the patrol division, but has also worked in court services, and is a member of our dive and drone teams. He grew up in Silver Lake and knows many of the business owners and residents already.
According to a media release from OCSO Undersheriff Ryan Schiller, "Deputy Nienhuis applied for this position, as this is new to us at the sheriff’s office. This is the first full-time contracted deputy position that we have. We fulfill some areas of the county with contracted hours per month, but none of these are full-time. This is new ground for us and for Golden Township. We have always had a very good working relationship with Golden Township, and this is a great step in providing the next level of service to a very busy tourism community.
"The Golden Township deputies' scheduled hours will be less predictable than in the past, which we all feel will be helpful. We will continue to staff the busy holiday weekends with extra staffing to accommodate our population influx. We know that Oceana County has a significant number of visitors annually. That number is proportionately huge when you start to consider how many deputies are normally working at any given time.
"We know that Deputy Nienhuis will serve this community well and look forward to (seeing) the connections to this community develop. For the homeowners who winter somewhere else, we recommend completing a 'property check' request when it’s closer to that time of year. This can be easily accomplished using the new sheriff app that was recently released. Among many other duties, Deputy Nienhuis will be checking up on our winter homes when the snow is on the ground."
The new OCSO app is available by seaching “Oceana County Sheriff, MI” in the app store.
