09/22/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting 9-22-03 Page 3 Roll Call: AYES: All NAYS: None ABSTAIN: Mrs. Mills Motion Carried Minutes Approved COMMENTS FROM MAYOR RINKER oaths orotc~e Mayor Rinker said before we swear in the two police officers, I feel constrained to respond to our speakers tonight. So everyone knows, Council has been looking at (and as far as I know) we are in earnest building two new ball fields-not soon enough-for many uses. Two fields are going to go in south of Parkview Pool. Interestingly enough, the sacrifice of one of the fields at Wiley is actually being put to good use. Some of the dirt from Wiley is going to be used in the new fields. This is part of some of the requirements we have for funding--or partial funding of the project. We really try to be pretty cost effective if you will in creating the fields. Just as we did with the soccer fields, we are doing the same thing with those 2 fields. As far as I know, lighting is very much in the offing. Looking a little further down the road, as far as recreational programs, one of our goals-an ongoing goal-is to work with the school system in sharing assets and trying to refurbish existing facilities. One of our thoughts that is pretty much in the early stages is to look at the Center School facilities and redesign those.l'hose fields just get beaten--with younger kids-with every kind of recreational sport you can think of-soccer, football and softball. What our hope is that in working in conjunction with the schools we will also be able to target next the Center School playground area and refurbish those fields as well. First up are the 2 softball fields south of the swimming pool and thereafter, hopefully, we will also be able to work a little magic in cooperating with the schools and the center as well. Bill keeps making the programs and we keep playing catch-up. Mayor Rinker said the other celebration tonight, 2 officers-and I will turn it over to our new Chief to introduce our 2 new officers and then I will ask you gentlemen to come down and be sworn in. Chief Dearden said in February we began the long and arduous process of hiring two new police officers to fill the vacancies that were created by the retirements of Chief Stevens and Sgt. Griesmar. A few weeks ago that culminated with the hiring of the 2 gentlemen that we have here tonight. Chief Dearden said in April of this year we hired Stuart as a part-time patrolmen. After scoring very high on our recent Civil Service test, we offered him the full-time position which fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a law enforcement officer. Stuart receives very deep satisfaction from helping others and realizes what a good role model he can be for others. Chief Dearden introduced Mark Schooler. Mark also scored very high on our Civil Service test and we have offered him this opportunity, which again, fulfills a lifelong dream of his. Chief Dearden said we believe both of these officers will make great assets to our police family.