City Council’s goals include cuts to fire, police
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
COUNCIL SETS GOALS — Using colored stickers, Presque Isle City Council members went over lists of possible options, selecting projects they were interested in discussing at length at future meetings, during Monday night’s meeting at the Northeastland Hotel. Pictured from left are: Council Chair Emily Smith and Councilors Dick Engels and Peter Hallowell.
By Kathy McCarty
PRESQUE ISLE — City Council met at the Northeastland Hotel Monday night, discussing over dinner their goals for the coming year. Present for the session were: Council Chair Emily Smith; Deputy Chair Randy Smith; and Councilors Jessica Chase-Smith, Dick Engels, Micah Desmond, Peter Hallowell and Bruce Sargent; City Manager Jim Bennett; and Deputy City Manager Martin Puckett.
Discussion lasted over three hours and covered a variety of topics, including ways to reduce expenses by making city buildings more energy efficient, as well as possible cuts that could be made at both the fire and police departments.
Bennett said the purpose of the evening was to “remind us of the big items you want to accomplish.”
“We’d rather shoot for a lot to get done, rather than a little. The goal tonight is to get to a place where you’re going to have five regular dots and one super dot — things you want to accomplish,” said the city manager.
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
CITY COUNCIL met at the Northeastland Hotel in Presque Isle Monday night, discussing what goals they’d like to achieve for the coming year. Pictured clockwise, from lower left, are: Deputy City Manager Martin Puckett; Council Chair Emily Smith; Councilors Peter Hallowell and Micah Desmond; City Manager Jim Bennett; Councilors Dick Engels and Jessica Chase-Smith; Deputy Chair Randy Smith; and Councilor Bruce Sargent.
Bennett called it a “prioritization process,” and that the “super dot allows you to select an item and my staff will gather data to be included in a future agenda.”
“You still have collective responsibility, but this allows your most important item to not fall by the wayside,” he said.
Using large sheets of paper, Bennett and Puckett listed about three dozen items for councilors to consider as goals for 2012, from energy audits and library staffing costs to an economic development summit, downtown safety and changes to both the fire and police.
Fire and police garnered the most conversation, with councilors looking for ways to reduce expenses while maintaining service.
In discussing the fire department, Bennett noted the city currently meets the OSHA requirements of “two in, two out.”
“Below that, firefighters would have to wait to enter a building,” said Bennett, adding, “If we ended up having living quarters for students during the school year, who would be required to be there every night and rotate weekends, we’d still have the staffing level of two-in, two-out.”
Sargent indicated volunteers could possibly fill spots, since “most volunteers are single guys, if they were paid a stipend and given a free place to stay and eat” they’d be willing to do so.
In discussing use of space at the Public Safety Building, talk shifted to police staffing.
“I’d like to see the police on this list. They’ve gone to a 12-hour shift. I feel if you don’t watch over them, there’s the tendency to grow limbs and lose control. My feeling is we have too many,” said Sargent. “You need to keep an eye on the police force or it takes on a life of its own.”
Bennett said the PIPD was down several positions from past years. At present, there are 12 patrol officers, two sergeants, a deputy chief and the chief, two support staff and four dispatchers.
Sargent said he’d requested but never received a staffing schedule for police last year.
“I want a schedule showing who’s working. I think Matt’s done a great job but I think some tweaking could be done,” said Sargent.
Emily Smith said the city could look at a volunteer fire department and used Fort Fairfield and Limestone as an example.
“We could probably get some solid numbers from them. It’s cheaper for them now and they have better response. People say there’s no way we can, but we won’t know if we don’t explore it,” said Smith.
Councilors also discussed at length economic development and ways to attract business to the city. Chase-Smith said there were programs to aid businesses in the hiring process.
“A lot of local businesses don’t realize there are tax incentives for hiring specific workers,” said Chase-Smith. “For example, if you hire someone on TANF, there’s a program that pays for training.”
Bennett recommended considering an economic summit of some type as one of the Council’s goals.
As items were discussed, Puckett wrote them on large sheets of paper which were then posted on the walls. With discussion completed, councilors then placed their dots on the items they want to focus on in the coming year. Among the top vote-getters were: bringing down capital assets by $500K in the next five years, scheduling an economic development summit, an energy audit of city buildings, reviewing staffing at the police department, the future of the landfill, establish an inventory of all city buildings, a student live-in program at the fire station and considering the future of the outdoor pool.
Green dots noting priority projects were designated as follows: Randy Smith, city buildings energy audit; Sargent, library operating hours review; Emily Smith, outdoor pool; Chase-Smith, downtown work; Desmond, explore a volunteer fire department; Engels, economic development summit; and Hallowell, look into the Presque Isle and Tri-Community landfills working together more closely.
Councilors agreed that several items on the list were already being worked on, such as the Community Center and downtown safety, and therefore their attention should be placed on other concerns. Other items councilors talked about but that didn’t make the goal list included:
• Obtaining no direct local subsidiary to support airport operations by 2014;
• Seek a lower-cost airline for some services by the end of 2013;
• Develop replacement alternatives for downsizing of full-time personnel at fire department;
• Seek grant funding for firefighters scheduled to be eliminated in 2013;
• Develop an in-house officer training program at the fire department;
• Offer credit card payment options by 2013;
• Formalize training program for the tax office;
• Residential property tax assessment review;
• Commercial property tax assessment review;
• Develop cross training of staff;
• Develop election guide for staff;
• Create computerized index of vital records;
• Transition all public records to city clerk;
• Increase training for Rec & Parks Department;
• Improve city communication with centralized websites for all operations and explore use of other communication vehicles such as Twitter and Facebook;
• Evaluate the feasibility of hosting more events at the Forum;
• Evaluate all service contracts for city buildings;
• Resolve downtown traffic/pedestrian plan;
• Improve downtown pedestrian safety;
• Fundraising for Community Center;
• Construct and fund a walking/bike path;
• Create an economic development point of contact;
• Create a business visitation program;
• Create a list of property/space available for development;
• Create a new industrial zone; and
• Look at how Presque Isle Development Fund money is being used.
City Council will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, May 7, at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For more information, call 760-2785 or visit presqueisle.govoffice2.com. Meetings are open to the public and participation is encouraged.
