Seligman council votes to buy new police cruiser
October 15, 2014
Charlea Mills
Next year, the Seligman Police Department will finally have a new police cruiser after the council members voted to purchase a new Dodge Charger at Monday night’s city council meeting.
Seligman Police Chief Terry Burgess made the appeal to the council, proposing a four-year rotation for the vehicle through a municipal lease with the state. The city is to make four yearly payments, then has the option to purchase the car for $1 or trade it in for a new one.
The total for the 2014 Dodge Charger is $27,598.80. Each of the four annual payments will cost the city around $7,550.
Burgess said, “Officers will be assigned to different cars so that I can control the miles put on it. Everyone isn’t going to be driving the new car every day because we need it to last for us.” Burgess added that this car would last the department at least four years, and that he needs the department’s other two cars combined to stay in operation for two years. He said, “What we would like to happen eventually is a rotation on vehicles.”
Alderman Eric Freeman stated, “Every year we’ve been buying a $5,000 car plus we have all of that maintenance.” Freeman made the motion to move forward on the bid, and alderman Ron Corn seconded it. The council members voted unanimously to enter into a lease with the state for the new Charger. The department should expect to pick up the car in March 2015.
Other changes proposed by Burgess for the department include extending police force hours to include more peak-time coverage.
When Burgess took over as the Chief of Police, multiple changes were made to the department, including turning the Chief position to part-time instead of full-time. They also only have part-time officers employed instead of any full-time in an effort to get the city more coverage each week by saving the money they would be spending on benefits for the Chief and any full-time officers.
Currently, the department has three part-time positions and Burgess hopes to bump that up to four in the next year. Burgess said, “It’s going to be getting busier with Walmart coming in. I’ll be checking to see what the manager needs in terms of on-duty officers for their pharmacy hours.”
He continued, “The schedule I’m proposing would cover all of the hours that Walmart is open with part-time officers.”
Alderman Ron Corn brought up his concerns with Burgess’ proposal at the meeting. He said, “Our plan going into this was to save our budget and do well from there. But we don’t want to jump into spending another 20 percent on top of this year and get into trouble.”
Burgess said, “If we’re not tracking right, I’ll make the necessary adjustments.” Part of the uncertainty for the budget for next year is due to the additional sales tax that will be generated from Walmart is highly variable, and the city won’t know how much that will generate until they start seeing the sales tax figures after they open. Council members will revisit the issue at a later meeting.
Charlea Mills
Next year, the Seligman Police Department will finally have a new police cruiser after the council members voted to purchase a new Dodge Charger at Monday night’s city council meeting.
Seligman Police Chief Terry Burgess made the appeal to the council, proposing a four-year rotation for the vehicle through a municipal lease with the state. The city is to make four yearly payments, then has the option to purchase the car for $1 or trade it in for a new one.
The total for the 2014 Dodge Charger is $27,598.80. Each of the four annual payments will cost the city around $7,550.
Burgess said, “Officers will be assigned to different cars so that I can control the miles put on it. Everyone isn’t going to be driving the new car every day because we need it to last for us.” Burgess added that this car would last the department at least four years, and that he needs the department’s other two cars combined to stay in operation for two years. He said, “What we would like to happen eventually is a rotation on vehicles.”
Alderman Eric Freeman stated, “Every year we’ve been buying a $5,000 car plus we have all of that maintenance.” Freeman made the motion to move forward on the bid, and alderman Ron Corn seconded it. The council members voted unanimously to enter into a lease with the state for the new Charger. The department should expect to pick up the car in March 2015.
Other changes proposed by Burgess for the department include extending police force hours to include more peak-time coverage.
When Burgess took over as the Chief of Police, multiple changes were made to the department, including turning the Chief position to part-time instead of full-time. They also only have part-time officers employed instead of any full-time in an effort to get the city more coverage each week by saving the money they would be spending on benefits for the Chief and any full-time officers.
Currently, the department has three part-time positions and Burgess hopes to bump that up to four in the next year. Burgess said, “It’s going to be getting busier with Walmart coming in. I’ll be checking to see what the manager needs in terms of on-duty officers for their pharmacy hours.”
He continued, “The schedule I’m proposing would cover all of the hours that Walmart is open with part-time officers.”
Alderman Ron Corn brought up his concerns with Burgess’ proposal at the meeting. He said, “Our plan going into this was to save our budget and do well from there. But we don’t want to jump into spending another 20 percent on top of this year and get into trouble.”
Burgess said, “If we’re not tracking right, I’ll make the necessary adjustments.” Part of the uncertainty for the budget for next year is due to the additional sales tax that will be generated from Walmart is highly variable, and the city won’t know how much that will generate until they start seeing the sales tax figures after they open. Council members will revisit the issue at a later meeting.
