Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Police Department has its first reserve officer following the swearing-in ceremony for Eric Meinecke during Wednesday’s Sheldon City Council meeting.
Meinecke is the first of two reserve officers approved by the council at an earlier meeting. The other, Krista Bousema, will be sworn in at the second council meeting in February.
In other action, after much discussion, the council voted for a $650-thousand engagement agreement for the borrowing of funds to finance the purchase of the new fire truck they had approved at an earlier meeting, as well as two new cars for the Sheldon Police Department. Sheldon Police Chief Lyle Bolkema told the council that the department’s three current patrol cars are a 2014 model with 170-thousand miles on the odometer, a 2016 with 100-thousand miles, and a 2017 with 30-thousand miles. Bolkema says his officers put a total of about 75-thousand miles on their fleet of patrol cars each year, and with the addition of the reserve officers he expects that number to rise. Bolkema told the council that this year’s state vehicle quote is about $34-thousand for each vehicle. The Sheldon PD then has the cars equipped by a Des Moines company at a cost of about $13-thousand per car. Bolkema says those numbers don’t include the cost of the data terminals in each vehicle.
The council discussed whether it was better to include the $100-thousand for the two police cars in the loan for the fire truck, or to pay for them out of the Emergency Services Fund. In the end they elected to enter into the engagement agreement for both the fire truck and the police cars, and making a final decision on how to pay for the police vehicles at a later date. City Manager Sam Kooiker told the council that Iowa State Bank in Sheldon is willing to loan the City the funds for these new vehicles at an interest rate of 2.7-percent for 7 years.
The council accepted the resignation of Brittany Behrendsen as General Manager of the Crossroads Pavilion Event Center during Wednesday’s meeting, but went into closed session to discuss an Interim General Manager. Following the closed session, the Council voted to offer the Interim General Manager position to current Assistant Manager Heather Jacobs until such time as a new General Manager is hired. Jacobs will receive a pay increase of $2-thousand per month, beginning with the pay period which began December 27th, along with additional vacation time. The council also approved the hiring of Pete Hamill to assist Jacobs at the facility, for an amount not to exceed $15-hundred. That’s the maximum allowed by law to be paid to Hamill, since he is a Sheldon council member, and Crossroads Pavilion Board member.
In other action, the council heard the annual report from the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team during their Wednesday meeting. We’ll have more on that report later.
Sheldon Mayor Katricia Meendering, Police Chief Lyle Bolkema, Reserve Coordinator Officer Jett Korver, and Reserve Officer Eric Meineke sign the forms making Meineke a Sheldon Police Reserve Officer
Reserve Sheldon Police Officer Eric Meinecke
