Kankakee Times

City of Watseka Public Safety Committee met Aug. 12.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

PRESENT: Aldermen Muench, Miller, Dewitt, Pence, Petersen, Garfield, Brault, Alderwoman Rohlfs, Mayor Marcier

GUESTS: Police Chief Eric Starkey, Fire Chief Ken Baier

Alderman Muench opened the meeting at 6:30 pm. There was no public comment. Aldermen Muench read the Auxiliary report: meeting was held 8/5/25, 1 person resigned because he moved out of state, training was ride along do’s and don’ts and the department reviewed the schedule for the Watseka Family Festival.

Fire Chief Ken Baier spoke next. He stated his department had 5 fire calls, 2 first responders calls, 26 ambulance calls, 7 MVA’s,4 automatic alarm calls, 1 auto aid call and 6 miscellaneous calls for a total 51 calls for the month of July. Training for July consisted of brush truck operations, SCBA MOD B, MABAS tent drill, Haz-Mat refresher and Haz-Mat Decon Procedures. The department has a new firefighter, David Parmenter, who is just out of school, and he wants this to be a full-time profession. The department will be having an ISO inspection on September 29th. Currently the department is at 4 and Chief is hoping to get that down to at least 3, maybe 2. The lower the number the better and this helps with homeowner’s house insurance. The department will be participating in the MABAS Golf Outing in September, and the department will be hosting a pork burger fundraiser on September 27th. Alderman Garfield thanked the fire department for the presentation they did at the fair.

Police Chief Eric Starkey stated his department had 372 calls for the month of July, with 45 of those being traffic stops and 22 were book ins. Chief Starkey stated the lateral hire applications were due in August 1st and there was not much of a response, he is going to have one come in late that they will be looking at. At this time there is one position open. Chief Starkey and Code Enforcement Officer Shane Eades are working on an updated ordinance to allow Code Enforcement to remove junk vehicles they hope to have this for next month. Chief Starkey reported they are going to do some training with the fire department at Nettie Davis school before it gets demolished and they will be using the drone with the fire department at the training cans. Chief stated the new tasers are here and Det. Marcott has been to school for training and will soon be training the rest of the department.

Alderman Garfield makes a motion to adjourn at 6:40 pm and Alderwoman Rohlfs seconded. Roll call carried 9-0.

https://www.watsekacity.org/media/4371