A group of concerned citizens gathered Monday evening to address the Blytheville City Council's police and fire committee regarding a recent upswing in crime in their neighborhood.
Residents of the neighborhood near the corner of Lake and Cherry Streets told council members that one house on Lake Street is being rented to young men who fight pit bulls, which are frequently loose and pose a danger to children and pets, and said young people congregating on the corners to fight leads to violence and shooting in the neighborhood.
"In our neighborhood crime is up," said Albert Brooks. "We have kids in that house selling dope, and we have bullet holes in our houses. We're concerned for our kids. At Lake and Cherry, crime is high, and these young men are standing in front of our houses selling dope, what can we do?"
Stan Parks and L.C. Hartsfield, the two committee members present, said they intended to bring this issue up to Mayor James Sanders as well as at the next full council meeting, and encouraged the citizens to be diligent about calling the police when they see trouble.
In his report to the committee, Police Chief Ross Thompson said the department is looking to purchase four new Ford SUVs instead of the usual Dodge Chargers or another sedan this year. He said the vehicles are needed for snow and ice in the winter and high water conditions in the spring and summer. The budget for the four vehicles, if purchased, will be approximately $120,000, which Thompson said is easily affordable from the police and fire tax fund.
"These are utility, all-wheel-drive vehicles, priced from the state bid program," he said. "They're used but have low mileage. We'd use them for admin so the mileage would be kept low but they'd be available for use in bad weather, and put the sedans being used by administration into patrol."
Parks told the chief the possibility exists of having to adjust budgets down later in the year, as the council anticipates a drop in tax revenues following the significant layoffs experienced in Blytheville industry over the past few months.
Hartsfield requested that Thompson bring mileage reports for the department's vehicles to the meetings on a quarterly basis, as well as more detailed reports on the types of calls and incidents to which officers are responding. According to Thompson's Monday report, for the period of Jan. 1 through April 13 of last year, there were 605 citations issued and 588 reportable incidents; while for the same period this year there have been 868 citations and 644 reportable incidents.
"I'd just like to see some more detailed information," said Hartsfield. "Citations are up so much. Has crime increased, or is the department doing a better job? I see on the Internet all the time that we're one of the worst cities in Arkansas and this data seems to support that. But maybe that's not the case. If it just means that our officers are issuing more citations, that's a good thing, I'd just like to see something that gives us details."
Thompson agreed to do so, and commented that the increase in citations could be a result of the department being closer to fully staffed this year, with 40 officers as opposed to 34-36 last year.
Fire Chief Mike Carney told the committee that a purchase order has been issued on the department's new pumper truck, which was approved in a series of meetings last week. Bids are also being taken for foundation work at the Main and Franklin fire station. Carney added that the department has several events planned to promote its weather radio program, since storm season has arrived.
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The public works committee met with interim public works director Mark Key Monday afternoon as well, and discussed the possibility of purchasing a new street sweeper at the end of the year.
The city plans to lease only three garbage trucks at the end of this year in its lease/purchase program, instead of its normal four -- then use the remaining funds to purchase a sweeper.
Councilman Tommy Abbott said it has been two years since the city has had a sweeper on the streets, which is a daily problem. He added he would speak again with city attorney Mike Bearden regarding the possibility of litigation against the Memphis company which took payment of $20,000 but failed to fix the city's old street sweeper.
"We can see about getting our money back for the work they did that accomplished zero," he said. "I'll go back and talk to Mike. I have a feeling he may tell us that's not worth messing with, but I'll talk to him about it. If that's not working, we need to get a street sweeper if it's at all feasible."
Key said he would likely need to hire additional help for the spring and summer season, and Hartsfield suggested he rotate the fourth garbage truck driver onto other duties in order to save money in payroll. Abbott encouraged Key to check on getting lower prices for replacing two trucks which have broken down, or into having them repaired instead of replacing them.
Hartsfield said the juvenile court judge has offered for the juveniles in the system to assist the city with public works duties as part of their parole, in a sort of work release program, which he said might help Key during the busy summer months. The city would not be responsible to pay anyone to supervise the juveniles, so the work would be done at no cost to the city.
sspears@blythevillecourier.com