KINGSTON — Residents of Kingston can take a breath of safe air. The Kitsap County Sheriff’s office is here to stay.

Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen said on Thursday that the substation will remain because deputies there simply could not be cut from the budget.

“We’ve worked so hard to increase the numbers of deputies over the last five years,” she said, explaining the deputies’ services are very important to the north end.

Both she and Commissioner Tim Botkin (Commissioner Jan Angel is on vacation) agreed it was an area they didn’t want to cut unless they absolutely had to.

Also, because this week was the deadline to put issues on the November ballot, the commissioners had to make some preliminary decisions, the satellite office call being one of them.

While the site is staying open, it will be changing the twice-a-week business days.

Starting this Monday, Sept. 23, the office will be switching its business days “to allow for a little more continuity,” said Deputy Scott Wilson, public information officer for the Kingston substation.

The new days the office will be open are Thursday and Friday, instead of Tuesday and Thursday, Wilson said, with the normal business hours of 8 a.m to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday, with deputies on 24-hour patrol.

“If we are here and a citizen needs assistance and there is a green car outside, most likely there is someone here,” Wilson explained.

But Wilson encourages citizens to first call 911 for emergency situations or

(360) 308-5400 for the non-emergency line into dispatch.