Residents voice support of HPD

After much deliberation, Holyoke City Council finally made a decision on wages for Holyoke Police Department. At their Jan. 21 meeting, council members approved salaries presented by police committee members John Schneider and Steve Moore. Council member Gene Bittner was the lone opposing vote.

Also at the Tuesday night meeting were Jeremiah Krieger, Jerry Cooper, Dan Kafka and Lisa Werts, all expressing their concern that the officers’ wages did not reflect the work that they do.

After they heard from the public, council members discussed the issue further among themselves. One concerned raised at the previous meeting was that other departments have underpaid staff as well.

In response to that, Schneider said, “If we’re not treating the other departments right, that’s a separate issue.”

Moore also provided information illustrating the difference between the police department and other City departments. The officers do not receive overtime pay, he explained. When he looked into three other employees’ 2019 pay, they made $4,300-$5,200 in overtime alone. That difference alone makes it hard to draw a direct comparison.

Bittner said that he’s not opposed to giving police officers a raise but that he doesn’t think it should be a $6,500 increase as initially presented.

“We’re assuming right now that we can’t hire anyone unless we pay them $42,000. We haven’t tried,” he said.

Police Chief Doug Bergstrom said that since he started advertising the open position at $42,000 in mid-December, he has had two applicants and neither were certified in Peace Officer Standards and Training.

With six council members ultimately in favor of the proposal, salaries were set at $69,140.85 for Bergstrom and $48,688.29 for Sgt. Mark Werts. Officer Mary Winterrowd, with an incentive for having a college degree in law enforcement, has a new salary of $45,711.54. The department is still looking for a new officer to be hired at a starting salary of $42,000.

Heldenbrand gives update on Office of Emergency Management

Phillips County Emergency Manager Bob Heldenbrand attended last Tuesday’s meeting to update council members on the Office of Emergency Management. He noted several upcoming events that may be of interest to the City.

A recovery workshop is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 22. As policy makers for the City, it is important for council members to attend, Heldenbrand explained.

A weather spotter class is scheduled for March 24-25. National Weather Service recommends getting recertified every couple of years, and City employees completed the training a couple of years ago.

Heldenbrand also noted that the regional hazard mitigation plan will be updated this year and that he wants the City to be involved in that. He explained that he is checking into a new countywide siren system since there are currently

four different systems and that none have battery backup. If possible, he would like that to be a hazard mitigation project.

Credentialing for the County’s Salamander tracking system is about 90% complete, Heldenbrand reported, and he hopes to finish credentialing City employees soon to finish the process. It’s a simplified way to track resources ­— personnel, apparatuses and equipment — in case of an emergency.

In summarizing 2019, Heldenbrand said that the emergency operations center was activated four times. Three were weather related, and one was a Salamander exercise at the Phillips County Fair. He encouraged council members to go to the EOC when it’s activated in the future to both help out and learn about what goes on there.

Purchase requests approved

Also at the Jan. 21 meeting, Holyoke City Council approved purchase requests for the water department and the cemetery.

For the water department, four new Sensus handheld devices were approved for reading meters. They will be purchased from Dana Kepner Company, and the old units will be traded in. The total cost after trade-in is $26,070.52.

For the cemetery, a new Walker mower with a 56-inch deck will be purchased from Kurtzer’s. After trading in the 2010 model at a value of $2,000, the total cost is $11,257.

Officials, rec director report

City Superintendent Mark Brown reported that there was one power outage since the last city council meeting. It occurred Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. in the 300-600 blocks of south Interocean and Campbell avenues. The electric department also installed new electric service at the new duplex in the 200 block of South Belford Avenue. The annual dielectric inspections of the electrical trucks was completed by Diversified Inspections, and there were no major concerns.

In the water and sewer department, water service was also installed at the new duplex. Crews also read meters, worked on broken meters, rodded sewers and conducted year-end reports.

The street crew was busy picking up tree branches after the windstorm and continues to work on compiling the street list for the annual sealcoat project.

Bergstrom reported that HPD, including code enforcement, handled or generated 314 calls for service Jan. 3-16. There were four animal complaints, three municipal code violations and one dog at large. He also gave a year-end report detailing the department’s activity.

Throughout 2019, HPD handled or generated 7,482 calls for service, which is up 626 from the year before. There were 482 case numbers, which is up 42 from 2018. Officers made 38 arrests, issued 317 citations and gave out 772 warnings.

Recreation director Victoria Dunker reported that the Nuggets Skills Challenge was scheduled for Jan. 26. The annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament will be held Monday, Feb. 17, with the Dragon Booster Club. Since many schools in the surrounding area will be closed that day, she hopes to see a good turnout from out of town.

Dunker also invited council members to attend the department’s year-end review Wednesday, Feb. 12.

Other business

In other business at the Jan. 21 meeting, city council members:

— Adopted Resolution No. 2-2020, a schedule of building permit fees.

— Approved library employee wages as presented by the Heginbotham Library Board with director Kathy Bornhoft at an annual salary of $43,260 and Laura Krogmeier and Perla Olivas at $12 per hour.

— Approved a travel request for Winterrowd to attend training in Aurora.