MOUNT VERNON – The 13,511 calls for service received by the Mount Vernon Police Department in the third quarter suggests the city will log approximately 80,000 calls in 2022, returning to pre-COVID levels, Police Chief Robert Morgan told City Council on Monday night.
The department has handled more than 500 traffic accidents, with approximately 400 of them non-injury accidents. Officers physically arrested 506 individuals. A little more than 1,500 traffic citations also were issued during the third quarter.
“The drug detectives are very active, still working on some of the problems we have here in Mount Vernon,” Morgan said.
Year to date, the Police Department has collected about 300 grams of methamphetamine with a little over 2,300 grams of marijuana, small amounts of heroin and cocaine, and approximately 50 grams of fentanyl.
They’ve had 106 felony drug indictments in cases under investigation by the department.
“The downside of this? We have had four overdose deaths in the city of Mount Vernon this year,” Morgan said. They’ve also had 41 overdose survivors thanks in part to the speed of responses by the Fire Department and the availability of Narcan to help recover from overdoses.
The Police Department’s community advocate position is going strong. He’s actively involved in more than 1,000 calls and has responded to the scene at more than 300 calls in 2022.
“And he's done 552 interventions where he’s referring somebody to another agency for assistance, giving them more options,” Morgan said.
The community advocate has completed hostage negotiation Phases 1 and 2 training plus additional training classes.
“The average officer in the Mount Vernon Police Department has also gotten 30 hours of training so far this year,” Morgan said.
He said the department is fully staffed, though two employees are on injury leave and are expected back sometime in December. Another officer’s status is on-call injury leave, which moved her from a patrol position to an office environment until her child is born.
The PAK United (Police And Kids) program has been successful, with fishing and archery tournaments, several kickball teams, a softball game and a basketball night.
Morgan said that a new K-9 unit – a 2-year-old German shepherd – and its handler are in training and should be on the streets in December.
He said that fuel costs have put the Police Department way over budget.
With two 500-plus unit developments on schedule and another large development expected, Councilmember Mike Hillier asked what that would mean for the Police Department.
Morgan said that growth would require more police officers to provide the city with enough coverage. The size of the department has only grown by five officers in the past 30 years, he said.
Council considering utility departments’ reorganization
Several positions in water and wastewater utilities would shift responsibilities, with some existing positions becoming supervisory and others getting different or additional duties, if two ordinances are approved.
Another committee meeting will be held the next time the council meets for more discussion before the ordinance reaches its third reading and comes up for a vote.
Council approves seeking sewage sludge bid
City Council approved having Safety-Service director Rick Dzik advertise for bids for the land application of wastewater sludge from the Mount Vernon Wastewater Treatment Plant for 2023, 2024 and 2025. But Councilmember Tammy Woods motioned to remove wording that would allow the Safety-Service director to enter into the contract.
Dzik said the bid document had two options.
“The first is the price for land application of wastewater sludge, which is what we've traditionally done. The second bid item asks for what would be the cost of de-watering and disposing of the sludge,” he said.
Vendors could bid on either or both, but Dzik believes most will offer a price for both options. He thinks the bids would be for renewable one-year contracts. He said Utilities Director Tom Marshall said one of the vendors with whom he discussed the upcoming bid requests did not require the city to guarantee a volume amount.
During the Utilities Committee meeting she chairs, Woods said she planned to amend the legislation to enable City Council to learn what costs would be before a contract was entered.
She said Marshall is looking at the city drying the wastewater sludge.
Dzik said Marshall is looking at options with a consultant. He wants to run a pilot project to go through the process of drying the sludge and determine the costs versus land application.
“So part of the reason he had the trailer here was just to see how the whole process works,” Dzik said. “So ultimately, there's an outside consultant giving us all their opinions about what the best process is.”
The utilities director wants an option, so if the digesters at the wastewater treatment plant get full, the city has an option if the wastewater sludge can’t get shipped out immediately.
