Question from Anonymous

mayor whasts your concerns for losing your police officers to other departments for better pay and Haz Duty retirement? also have you had anymroe thought into charging a fee for reoccuring alarms at business's to help pay for the Haz duty?

Steve Connelly answered:

A fair estimate of the immediate cost to the city of the hazardous retirment program would be $200,000 a year. Charging a fee on fire alarms would do little to off set that cost.

The issue of retaining and recruiting qualified police and fire personnel is constantly being evaluated and is an important issue. The city will interview three candidates for a police position on Thursday. That experience may shed light on this evolving issue.