Airgas Inc. donates protective body armor vest to Sheriff’s Office on behalf of an employee who is a member of the sheriff’s Reserve Division

Scott Bowles, a St. Bernard Reserve Division officer and employee of Airgas Inc., holds up the protecive body armor vest the company donated to the Sheriff’s Office on behalf of Bowles. At left is Sheriff James Pohlmann. Others shown are Mike Davis, general manager of the Airgas division in Harvey, Capt. Joe Ricca, the ranking officer in the Reserve Division, and Capt. Charles Borchers, who heads the Reserve Division as part of his duties as director of community relations for the Sheriff’s Office which includes overseeing Neighborhood Watch and other programs. St. Bernard Parish residents who would like to apply for the Reserve Division can call Borchers at (504) 278-7628.

Airgas Inc., the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and has 14,000 employees, has donated a protective body armor vest to the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office on behalf of an employee who is a member of the sheriff’s Reserve Division.

Sheriff James Pohlmann thanked Mike Davis, general manager of the Airgas division in Harvey, at a recent presentation of the vest by the company on behalf of one of its employee, Scott Bowles. Bowles is with the sheriff’s Reserve Division and is a former full-time sheriff’s deputy in St. Bernard.

“We support community service,’’ Davis said in explaining why it donated the protective vest. He said the company has been involved in helping numerous law enforcement agencies and other worthwhile causes such as fund-raising for Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.

“Scott is a valued employee and we wanted to help protect him’’ through the donation of the vest, Davis said.

Bowles said he has been a member of the Reserve Division of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office for about a year and a half and previously was a regular force deputy from the late 1980s to the late 1990s.

Also present for the presentation were Capt. Charles Borchers, coordinator of the Reserve Division of the Sheriff’s Office as part of his duties as head of Community Relations including Neighborhood Watch and Citizens Police Academy, and Capt. Joe Ricca, the ranking officer of the reserves.

Davis said Airgas had a branch of its business on Paris Road in Chalmette prior to Hurricane Katrina but it was heavily damage by flood waters.

The company was involved in eliminating more than 25,000 damaged air cylinders after Hurricane Katrina including hazardous compressed gas cylinders, in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Jefferson and Terrebonne parishes, Davis said.

Sheriff Pohlmann invited other businesses and groups to consider helping protect officers in the community by making a donation specifically for a body armor vest.

Anyone interested in making such a donation should call Maj. David DiMaggio, head of training for the Sheriff’s Office, at (504) 278-7632.