Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Vienna has now extended the hours of the part-time police department so an officer will be on duty 20 hours a day.
VIENNA -- Combining the township's part-time police force with neighboring Fowler Township's department is being considered to give 24-hour protection to both communities in the wake of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department limiting coverage in the area, officials said.
"What we would like to do is make it that an officer is on the roads at all times and would be available if something happens," said Trustee Mark Finamore. "Right now, with two part-time departments there are times when the communities don't have anyone available."
Trustee Tom Carr, of Fowler, said before Monday's meeting that the discussions are still in the beginning stages, but he hopes to have more solid plans soon.
In the last week, there were break-ins at a restaurant and a pharmacy in Vienna. The department had no one working at the time and the sheriff's department is no longer answering burglar alarms because of budget cutbacks.
"I want to know that if my store gets broken into at 2 a.m. that I won't be responding to it by myself," said Kevin Turner, owner of the IGA in Vienna. "I want a police officer there with me."
Extended hours
Finamore said until the agreement is worked out with Fowler, the township has now extended the hours of the part-time department so an officer will be on duty 20 hours a day.
"We are also now switching the shifts around so that we have someone working at varying times," Finamore said. "We want to have better coverage."
Trustees explained the township doesn't have enough money to have a full-time department.
"A full time department would cost at least $600,000, and we have $100,000 for our department," said Trustee Mark Finamore. "We have given the police department a little extra money from the general fund so that we can now have an officer on duty 20 hours a day."
Finamore, who also is vice president of the Trumbull County Townships Association, said other county townships are also trying to find ways to provide additional police protection since the sheriff's department had to stop providing road patrols.
The sheriff's department handed out layoff slips to address a $5.4 million cut in its budget this year. County income was lost from a half-percent sales tax defeated by voters in November 2003. First to go were the sheriff's road patrols, and sheriff's officials have warned of a potential rise in crimes in the northern rural townships of the county. The sheriff will continue to respond to "Priority One" crimes against a person: homicide, assault, domestic complaints, robbery and burglary in progress. They are no longer responding to alarm drops and other crimes against property.