Wages for Trenton Police officers among topics of Trenton City Council meeting

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Mayor Nick McHargue opened last night’s Trenton City Council meeting with a moment of silence to reflect on the life of Steven Sims and the service he provided to the city of Trenton.

He was a TMU employee for more than 20 years, serving as the electric plant supervisor, who died in an off-duty accident in northeast Kansas. The Mayor authorized city hall and TMU to be closed a portion of the day of Sims funeral.

Members of the Trenton City Council discussed, but took no action last night, on a request to increase the starting pay for a Trenton Police Officer.

Police Chief Tommy Wright is requesting the starting pay for a police officer at Trenton be increased to $30,000 in an effort to attract candidates and hopefully hire someone. The current beginning wage is $28,562.

Currently, the department is three officers short on their authorized strength of 12. One is on national guard deployment and there are two vacancies. Chief Wright told the council over-time work by police totals $26,700 since the first of this year. In addition, Chief Wright stated he and Lieutenant Rex Ross have spent 700 additional hours with patrol duties due to being short staffed.

The police chief is asking that eight current officers receive an increase that’s commensurate with the increase in starting pay. That’s estimated to cost $14,000 including the social security and Medicare math. Chief Wright also asked the city begin taking steps to increase police officer salary to reflect the adopted 2011 pay scale and classification.

Members of the city council appreciated Chief Wright’s request and information but pointed out other departments within the city have employees who need a raise. Some on the council indicated if nothing is done, the city may lose employees because of higher pay elsewhere. And Mayor McHargue hinted staffing may have to be reduced unless something positive happens with the ConAgra plant.

At least two council members agreed with Chief Wright’s recommendation that when budget preparations begin, place salaries and employee step salary increases at the beginning of budget discussions before all other operations or categories.

City Council actions last night included approval of two ordinances and a bid.

The council approved an addendum to the payment plan contract with Green Hills Animal Shelter. The cost of $13,700 dollars includes an administrative fee and 900 boarding days at $13.00s per day, for up to five days per sheltered animal.

An intergovernmental agreement was approved for the town of Sumner to pay Trenton $27,000 to make asphalt repairs to selected streets next month. In addition, asphalt will be sold by the Trenton plant for use on streets of Sumner.

The low bid was approved with DR Petroleum of Chillicothe on the purchase of two 15,000 gallon, above ground, fuel tanks, at the north substation. The cost for the tanks tops $77,700 dollars. There will be additional expenses for TMU that include pouring of pads, use of a crane to put tanks in place, and plumbing all of which is expected to be within the budgeted amount for the project.

Trenton’s newest police officer, Jazmine Diab from Moberly, was introduced to the city council last night.

The city council also met in closed executive session for legal and real estate matters.

The publicized meeting of the Trenton Building and Nuisance board could not be held due to lack of a quorum. Only three board members were present at city hall.

Building Inspector and Code officer Donnie Vandevender noted the housing demolition work at selected sites in Trenton has been completed. He provided an analysis of the costs to the city.

For projects approved in the 2016-17 fiscal year, the next cost to the city will be $20,568. All costs amounted to over $31,700 dollars. But property owner payments already made, and those to be made to the city, add up to more than $11,000. All demolition projects for the 2017-18 fiscal year were done at city expense – no property owner support. That cost is $31,665 dollars which included via a recent change, one additional property: the fire-ravaged house at 1002 West 14th Street. Vandevender noted that besides the actual demolition work and asbestos abatement by contractors, the department of natural resources now collects 102 dollars as an asbestos project fee in each of the two years.

Police Chief Tommy Wright told the city council the number of nuisance violations now exceeds all of last year. It’s up to 190 year to date compared to 145 at this time last year; and 173 for the whole year at Trenton.


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