Trending
SALINEVILLE -- The village police department received $10,000 out of the $17,766 of grant money it applied for last month. Acting chief Keith Evanoff informed council of the newly received funds during Wednesday's meeting.
The department originally applied for the Edward Bryne Memorial Justice Assistance grant to help fill needed coverage hours in the village, especially late at night. Evanoff said that with the money they will be adding an officer to cover the midnight to 8 a.m. shift three days a week. Currently, the county sheriff's office provides those eight hours of coverage for the department, but the geographical location of Salineville compared to the sheriff's office raises concern.
"With Salineville being at the edge of the county, people sometimes have to wait a prolonged period to get assistance after midnight," Evanoff said. He hopes to reduce the 20 to 30 minutes wait time to only 5 minutes with the addition of a midnight shift officer. The department already has an officer in training to fill the shift as Evanoff anticipated receiving the grant and increased staff to meet projected needs.
Also, the department wants to have an additional officer available to assist the K-9 officer when K-9 Frankie is being used during a traffic stop. Evanoff said this is to increase the K-9 officer's safety and to limit distractions from occupants of the vehicle.
Evanoff said the grant money will be used from March 1 to Sept. 30.
Council previously discussed appointing a collaboration board to evaluate how the department spends the grant, but Evanoff said there's a possibility that might not be required with the version of the grant he applied for and he's waiting for confirmation before proceeding.
In other business, council tabled multiple legislative items until law director Andy Beech returns to answer any questions that council might have about the items.