Staff Reports
Jefferson Police Chief Tino Perez arrested a continued shortage of equipment at JPD by using surplus funds in his 2021-22 budget during Tuesday nights Council meeting.
Council authorized Perez to spend up to $47,350 to purchase a variety of equipment the department has been needing.
Officers will be receiving six new body restraint vests to replace currently expired vests; eight new digital radios and accessories; seven Axon Tasers and accessories; and four 12-foot Stop Stick Kits.
“We currently have two operational tasers,” Perez said. “All of our officers are wearing expired vests; and the current radios are approaching their 10-year lifeline. We’ve never had stop sticks before, and there has been an increase in the number of high-speed chases passing through town recently. Usually they are on US59, but there have been some that detoured into town. The stop sticks would allow us to prevent that from happening.”
Perez said there is a grant the department could apply for to replace the radios, but the department wouldn’t receive the radios for 12-18 months. He said now that he was back fully staffed he would return to pursuing available grants for equipment replacement. Perez also said he’d be keeping a chart of the equipment so future replacements could be done as needed instead of all at once.
Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker jokingly asked if he could replace the Mayor’s Gavel with one of the old tasers for use in Council meetings after council approved the expenditure.
The majority of JPD’s surplus funds are in the salary budget category due to the department having vacancies for most of the fiscal year.
National Night Out is happening again in Jefferson on October 4 at the parking lot in front of the Jefferson Tourism and Visitor’s Center, after council approved the special event application. The event is open to the public and has representatives from area first responders, as well as games and activities for children.
Sewer system updates in the Clarksville-Canal street area will be happening as council accepted a bid from WM Miller Construction for $228,227.06 to begin work.
Schaumburg & Polk representative Jeremy Buechter was on hand to review the received bids and recommend WM Miller Constrution. The city had applied for a Texas Community Development Block Grant recently which will cover the costs of the project.
Sewer lines on Canal and Clarksville streets from Bonham to Washington streets will be being replaced as part of the project.
Baker reminded council members to be thinking of their appointees for the newly updated Planning and Zoning Commission, as those appointments will be on the city’s next regular agenda.