New Police Officer Needed Now, Says Upset Chief

New police officer needed now, says upset chief ^1

By ELIZABETH COBBS"

NEWS SPECIAL WRITER

BELLEVILLE
Township's police

•—--"~'-a-<--. i— i-i——

chief is upset
over's'delay in hiring an additional
part-time police officer.

"Our regular police officers are
already working fromn? to 14
hours," said Chief Clinton Brown.
"If an officer is out or calls in sick,
I »ave ^anyone to replace
hirn.

The township board last week ta-
bled a request from Brown to re-
hire Bill Napier, a certified police
officer who has worked with Brown
on the township force off-and-on for
seven years.

; Brown said he didn't asnt^"mate
-any trouble over his hirhi i^st.

"I thought the board would un-
derstand because we already have
the money in our budget to hire
him," Brown said. "If we hired a
".new person, we would have to
spend hundreds of dollars in order
to train him. The only thing we
have to spend now is $250 for Na-
pier's uniform."

Trustee Louis Banotai said the
township was operating under a
$40,000 deficit, making it difficult
tohireper?"^ -•""'
"The hea»(s '»i c*ien department

ISS^011^ start considering the bud-
get," said Banotai. "You should do
—. the best with what you have. Sure,

Sympter we>d like to have 3010 40 police offi-
•<"—* cers. but if you can't afford it, just
don't do it!"

Operating under a $250,000 bud-
get, the police department has six
full-time officers who are paid $13
an hour while the seven part-time
officers are paid $5.20 an hour.

"We need more officers now,"
Brown continued. "D (
merchant's building , n ,
to and there were no police officers
to go there. We can't get help frr*yr»
the state police because they
already told us that they will omy
respond if it's an emergency."

Supervisor Clarence Hoffman is
in favor of hiring the officer but
wants to consider the budget more
thoroughly.

"I want to se<" fi-
cers hired but we ne< ?»over
the budget again," i i said.
"I don't want the people to say I'm
running the budget in the hole''.

Township Clerk Joan Oddy said
that the police department is not
over budget but suggested that
Brown give an overtime chart to
the board to see how much is al-
ready being spent in overtime pay-
ments. ,m

"It's almost T. • 'visible to say
how much oi " the officers
make," said Brown. "Besides
working a regular eight-hour shift,
an officer may have to take a pris-
on"" A- n ^roit or is served a sub-
p to court which could
day. If it's over his eight

nii ,»y union contract he has to

be paid overtime."

Not all of the board members a.\
in favor of the delay in hiring an-
othpr pf1"'"-' r-f^-"— "ecause it will
fore another
regular board meeting, Trustee
John Morgan believes the officer
should be hired now.

"The funds are already there to
hire the policeman," said Morgan.
"I just hope the board has done the
right thing because we need more
protection, especially during this
time of year."