By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
A combination of a reduced police force and an increase in calls has many in Bucyrus concerned but it was the law director who decided to voice his opinions Tuesday night.
The Bucyrus police and fire chiefs submitted their May 2013 reports to City Council for review and City Law Director Rob Ratliff made sure to point out a few important facts.
The Bucyrus Police Department is now down two officers with the retirements of Chief Ken Teets and Captain John Beal at the end of May. Ratliff noted that with the limited police staff in May, the department took 873 calls that month with 408 of those calls requiring police reports. He compared those numbers against the report from a year ago where the department took 673 in May 2012 and wrote up 356 reports.
“The total number of calls and just the total number of reports is increasing dramatically and our police department is woefully understaffed,” Ratliff said.
This sentiment does not come as too much of a surprise. Council has put two safety forces levy on the ballots in the recent past, both which had failed even with increased public support during the November election. Talks continue within Council to put another levy on the ballot in the fall.
Three of four pieces of legislation passed during Tuesday night’s Bucyrus City Council meeting. An ordinance making various appropriations, a resolution to allow the Ohio Department of Transportation to perform preventative maintenance pavement treatment on State Route 19, and another resolution to go out for bids for the 2013 Mill and Pave Program all easily passed.
The hitch came when John Walker and Bruce Truka voted against Resolution 214-2013, which would authorize the Service/Safety Director to go out for bids for the 2013 Walnut Street Waterline project. The city had received an Ohio Public Works Commission grant totaling $155,000 for the project. The city would have to pay $205,425 for the project with $36,000 built in as a contingency. The project would total $396,425.
After the City Council meeting Truka stated he thought there may be serious problems with the Water Department. He wanted to see if they can be brought up to date with what is going on within the department before passing legislation for the Walnut Street Waterline project.
The Walnut Street Waterline project was put back into the Platting and Finance Committees for further discussion.
Two committee meetings have been scheduled for next Monday. The Economic Development Committee will meet at 7:00 p.m. on June 24. That will be followed by a Service Committee meeting at 7:30 p.m.