Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Public Safety Committee met May 10.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

PRESENT: Alderwomen Ulfers and Musk, Aldermen Barragree, Cahoe, Marcier, Mayor Allhands 

ABSENT: Aldermen Garfield, Miller and Rushbrook

GUESTS: Nita Dubble with the Police & Fire Commission, Kevin Hack with Riverside Hospital, and resident, Stephanie McCullough

Alderwoman Ulfers opened the meeting at 6:30 pm. Nita Dubble with the Police & Fire Commission spoke first during public comment. She reported the commission will be having written testing for 2 sergeants on June 4th and the oral testing will be done June 7th. Nita thanked the committee for letting her attend the Police & Fire Conference, she learned a lot and there will be another conference in November in Naperville that she would like more of the members of the commission to attend. Ms. Dubble also reported the commission has received 4 applications for police officers and they are going to extend the application date another 30 days to see if they get more applicants. Nita also stated Roy Johnson is going to be resigning soon so they will be looking for a new member. Nita stated Chief Douglas will be discussing the new officer that will be replacing Officer John-Lee Hall that will be retiring May 31st.

Kevin Hack with Riverside Hospital/Ambulance gave the committee an update regarding the calls they have had in Watseka.

Resident Stephanie McCullough spoke next to the committee regarding the boring companies being in town and tearing her yard up. Mayor Allhands stated Public Work Supervisor Dustin Standish met with the restoration company this morning and they will be starting that work very soon.

Fire Chief Ken Baier stated his department had 1 fire, 4 brush fires, 1 automatic alarm, 2 CO, 1 gas leak, 1 auto aid call to Crescent City, 5 EMS assists, and 4 other calls for a total of 19 for the month of April. Training for April consisted of consumption drill at training tower, SCBA fit testing, Drager SBCA demonstration, burn drills at training tower under live fire. Lt. Brault went to the Indianapolis FDIC for a live fire training. The department hosted the MABAS 37 meeting, they have reserved the tent with light plant and command trailer for the Watseka Family Festival, and they auctioned off lunch with a firefighter for the Chamber of Commerce fund raiser. Chief stated he has 1 more week of arson school and the department will be going to the high school on Friday to see about getting some new recruits. He also stated the new radios that were ordered in September have finally arrived. He also stated the department helped get a cat out of tree using the ladder truck and it was good training for some of the newer members of the department.

Police Chief Jeremy Douglas stated his department had 337 calls for service during the month of April. Chief stated Officer John-Lee Hall will be retiring May 31st after 20 years of service.

They have decided to hire Alex Corriveau. He is at part time academy now and will graduate November 13th. Chief stated he will have all of his fto training done by November and he will be put on as part time in October. He will have a 2-week transition course in Belleville to complete when it becomes available. Chief Douglas stated K9 Tucker went to the high school for Prom detail. Chief Douglas gave an update on the cloud storage quote from last month, the quote of $3975 that he gave was only for 2 cameras. Chief stated Ruder Communications said that most businesses only keep data for 5-6 days, so this is still on ongoing process he will have more information next month.

Chief stated the staff meeting they had went well.

Chief Douglas stated Detective Marcott and Officer Puleo attended a class and he, Deputy Chief King and Detective Marcott attended the IDEOA conference in Peoria. Chief stated the department is looking into getting flock cameras that will read license plates and this will help in looking for stolen cars etc. Chief Douglas also stated the mobile team task force asked for help with an event in Kankakee but the officers said no thanks.

Chief then stated CLR Computers have gone out of business and the department is in the process of switching over to Advanced Computers and they have said that the city needs to have a more secure email system and some of the computer programs need to be upgraded. There was a short discussion on body cams and Chief stated this is still a work in progress as he is still gathering information. At this time Chief is thinking the Panasonic is going to be the best choice.

Chief also stated Ride to the Wall will be happening the Tuesday after Memorial Day and there will be about 400 motorcycles in Watseka for an event.

Alderwoman Ulfers makes a motion to adjourn at 7:03 and Alderman Cahoe seconded. Roll call carried 6-0.

http://www.watsekacity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/public-safety-5-10-22.pdf