The monthly Blue Springs board meeting on Feb. 1 brought discussion of new police vehicle lettering, finding part-time help in the police department, and installing new storm shelters. Mayor Rita Gentry expressed excitement and enthusiasm about Blue Springs having their own official striping on the town’s police vehicles for the first time ever. Mayor Gentry stated that she’d gotten a quote for the striping for the newly-purchased 2016 Ford Explorer that was delivered last Monday. The company that she got the quote from is reputable and has done other area police vehicles. Everyone present was in agreement that the quote was more than reasonable, but they will be obtaining a few more quotes for comparison before moving forward. In addition to the new Explorer being striped, the Charger that the department is currently using will also be striped so that both vehicles will wear the official Blue Springs striping. The only possible caveat is that the striping will lack the reflective lettering. However, according to Alderman Lorence Strange and Chief Clayton, many other area police departments are moving away from having reflective lettering, so the board members agreed that it won’t cause an issue.
Alderwoman Renna Tolbert asked police chief Brandon Clayton where he was on finding a new person to hire for the open policeman position. Clayton said that it has proven difficult to find someone willing to work for the current starting salary. Alderwoman Rhonda Horton asked about the possibility of hiring new officers coming out of the academy, but Chief Clayton expressed concerns about the location being so remote and felt that it wouldn’t be safe for an inexperienced officer to be working without backup. Additionally, it could become costly for the town to keep up with the required continuing education hours. The board discussed ways to find room in the budget. Alderwoman Tolbert said that it was a concern that they had nice, new police vehicles and no one to put in them. She said that she’d sat down earlier in the week to look closely at the numbers to see if there was a way to possibly move some things around to allocate to the police department’s budget. She suggested that $1,500 that is budgeted for Blue Springs activities, more specifically the Blue Springs Festival, could be moved toward the department’s budget and that they seek sponsors, fund raisers, and community involvement to raise money for the festival. There is also $1,300 in the capitol equipment land improving fund that is dedicated for fixing and upkeep on equipment. That is now covered by a modernization fund that didn’t exist when the fund was created that could easily be moved, as well as a couple of funds from the East Union and Southeast Fire that have been carried over from year to year, but is now covered by a larger fund. This is all money that is already budgeted that could be moved to improve the police department and help Chief Clayton find a quality, experienced officer. Further, code enforcement currently falls under the umbrella of the police department and there is a need to set up a separate allocation for code enforcement instead of it coming out of the police budget. The discussion was tabled until next meeting, and Alderwoman Tolbert will be running numbers to make a proposal.