PARIS – Oxford County sheriff’s deputies and deputized Rumford police officers are patrolling the 27 miles of Canadian border in Oxford County four times a week.

“This is the first winter we have done it,” said chief Deputy Dane Tripp, who along 35 other officers were trained this past weekend at a forest rangers’ encampment in Adamstown Township.

The officers were trained in how to navigate hazardous conditions they might encounter, how to ride snow machines safely and in other aspects of patrolling the border. “Many have never ridden before,” Tripp said of the deputies on the Arctic Cat snowmachines used to traverse the rural areas.

The effort is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s plans to increase border patrols and is being paid for with federal funds.

Teams of two off-duty officers will patrol the border, Tripp said.

Patrols were to have started last winter, but there were no vehicles capable of getting through the snowy conditions. “We got federal money to purchase two Arctic Cat snowmachines and a trailer,” Tripp said.

The equipment allows patrolling from Magalloway Plantation to Adamstown Township to begin this winter.

Last year, patrolling was done along Route 16, except during severe winter weather.

The patrols are part of Operation Stonegarden, a border security enhancement program in operation since 2006. State, county and local agencies work with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents along the international border in an effort to intercept persons attempting to illegally enter the country.

Funding for the program comes from the Homeland Security grant program.