Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Public Safety Committee met April 12.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

PRESENT: Alderwoman Ulfers, Aldermen Barragree, Cahoe, Marcier, Garfield, Miller, Mayor Allhands

ABSENT: Alderman Rushbrook, Alderwoman Musk

GUESTS: Yami with the Farmers Market, Fire Chief Ken Baier, Police Commission Member Nita Dubble, Police Chief Jeremy Douglas

Alderwoman Ulfers opened the meeting at 6:30 pm. Yami with the Watseka Farmers Market spoke first. She stated she took this over 3 years ago and they set up in the parking lot between the post office and the food pantry site on W Walnut St. In the past they have had 7-8 vendors and she is looking to have 10-15. She has had a fundraiser and raised $800. She is asking the city to match that amount. This money goes to help the vendors get permits. She stated she advertises on social media and gets positive feedback from that. She is also looking for a community garden. At this site she would plant in 5-gallon buckets and any extra food would then be donated to the food pantry. She is looking for a site. A suggestion was made that she could possibly use a DNR lot that the city owns. The donation will be put on for full council in 2 weeks. The committee thanked her for coming in.

Auxiliary Officer Mark Garfield spoke next. He stated the departments training was on vehicle stops and verbal de-escalation. The department has purchased a generator and lights for the auxiliary boat. The only detail the department had was for traffic control on Fleming St for a downed power line.

Fire Chief Ken Baier stated his department had 2 structure fires, 1 vehicle fire, 9 automatic alarms, 1 auto aid call, 6 EMS assists, and 3 others (power line, forcible entry, Haz-Mat) for the month of March. Training for March consisted of tactics and strategies, preplan and walk through at Heritage Woods, tower ladder training, rapid intervention team and scba consumption drill Mod D. Chief stated he is taking a 5-week arson class which is police related and he stated he is learning a lot. Lt. Brose, FF Burton, FF Lesage, FF Jones, FF Larry Schroeder and FF Dakota Schroeder and Cadet Woods all took a 40 hours basic aid first responder class in Cissna Park. FF Lesage took a 40 hour Fire Apparatus Engineer class and FF Douglas is in that same class now. Chief Baier stated new bunker gear was fitted for 7 personnel and it will take 6-12 weeks for delivery. The brush truck that is 20 years old is having pump work done for the fire pump. Chief also stated the first responder paperwork is turned into the stated and is now waiting final approval. When that is done the 2961, 2982, and 2932 will be state certified first responder vehicles. Chief Baier has approached businesses about their combustibles next to their building and advised them of the city ordinance. Fire personnel went to the high school and met with students for career day and the cadet committee is moving forward with recruiting cadets from the high school. There was a short discussion about the gas leak at the Shell Gas Station and chief reported a bill for $8,000 was sent. He stated next time when something like this happens the department has enough Haz-Mat training that they can handle the call themselves and not have to call for assistance. Chief Baier asked the committee for an increase in his pay. He stated he puts in about 20 hours a week and he read off a list of training and certificates that he has. This will be discussed more next week in finance.

Police Commission Nita Dubble spoke next. She stated the commission is wanting to amend ordinance #2517A. Section 7-4 they wanted to remove the powers and duties but Attorney Cainkar stated not all officers are members of the union so that will be kept as is, Section 7-6 the committee wants to add a vice chairman and chairman and secretary, Section 7-8 the committee would like to be able to meet more than once a month if needed and she stated until they get promotions and hiring up todate that will be necessary and then after that she believes maybe meeting quarterly would be enough. Nita stated the amended ordinance will be on the agenda at the next council meeting. Nita then discussed the sergeant promotions that need to be made in the department, the commission is requesting to add 2 more sergeant positions. With the additional 2 there will then be a total of 3 sergeants in the department. Nita went on to state the sign up for testing will begin 4/27 and conclude 4/28. Chief Douglas will order the tests that are needed and the police commission will conduct the testing and will do the oral interviews after the written tests, after that a list will be established. The committee is ok with the police commission recommendations and advised them to move forward.

Police Chief Jeremy Douglas stated his department had 379 calls during March. Chief stated the department has ordered a new computer for King and Marcott to use in their office. He also stated the part time officer is in his 3rd month for school and will graduate in the fall. Chief stated car 7 is still at Dralles up on the rack and should be done by Thursday or Friday. The new Tahoe Car 8 is on the road. All of the dress uniforms are in and Chief Douglas, Detective Marcott and K9 Officer Mark Harris were in attendance so that the committee could see what they looked like. Chief then discussed the cameras and the server. The hard drive has quit again but Ruders was able to get the data back. Ruders gave Chief Douglas an estimate to back the cameras up on the cloud for a cost of $3975 per year or there is a plan with a monthly service call from Ruders to check the service for $1703 a year. There was some discussion about moving some of the cameras from public works to the parks and the wells and the waste water treatment plant. Alderman Marcier makes a motion to recommend to the Council to accept the quote from Ruder Communications for cloud back up storage for $3975/year and Alderman Garfield seconded. Roll call carried 7-0. Chief Douglas stated in the personnel committee meeting he attended he asked for an increase for the police department secretary. Currently she is at $16.88/hour and he is asking for $20/hour. He stated he has budgeted for this increase.

Chief Douglas then read a letter regarding Officer John-Lee Hall and the help that he provided to Kyle Schaumburg and his family regarding their dog getting hit by a car. The family commended him for taking the extra steps in helping them. There was a short discussion on body cams and the price of them. Chief stated he is still looking at options and will get back to the committee next month.

Alderwoman Ulfers makes a motion to adjourn at 7:34 pm and Alderman Miller seconded. Roll call carried 7-0.

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