By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
In this year of ever-tightening budgets, annual police protection contracts offered for years through the Racine County Sheriff’s Department are not a sure thing.
But replacing the sheriff’s services with something comparable, but cheaper, can be elusive.
Monday night, after months of testing the waters, Waterford village officials decided not to jump in with the Town of Waterford in providing a new joint policing arrangement for the town and village.
In a 6-1 vote, the Village Board declined to sign a contract with the town police that offered to provide policing services for the village in 2013.
Instead, the issue of which agency will cop the job of providing protection for the village in 2013 was left hanging. It could depend on whether the town and county are interested in providing split shift coverage for the village.
According to that idea, offered by the village’s Personnel Committee, county deputies could provide first- and second-shift coverage; town officers would work the third shift.
But his answer to that kind of arrangement is a definite “no,” Racine County Sheriff Chris Schmaling said via email July 31.
“It’s like hiring one contractor to roof the front of your house, and another the back,” he said in an opinion piece running on page xx.
But Schmaling said he will extend to Aug. 14 a change-notification deadline that is included in the village’s current 2012 contract with his department.
For the full story, see the Aug. 3 edition of the Waterford Post.
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i live in the village of waterford and i think you should ask us what we want. i know i would say try switching for one contract and see how it goes. i pay taxes i should have a say of who protects me and my family
I live in the village and own a business here. I value and trust the great proactive policing done by the sheriffs deptartment. We should stick with the top cops, not some part time Barney Fife types. What a silly idea to split it.
Yes, as a taxpayer, we should absolutely have a say. Why not have a separate vote or something like that? I personally don’t have a strong opinion either way, And I can see both viewpoints. Why not let the Village inhabitants decide?
So Jason, we shouldn’t let our leaders lead? As “a taxpayer,” how much would this referendum cost us? Should we have referendums for every decision the village contemplates? We live in a Representative Democracy not a society where we have a referendum on everything government wishes to do. That’s what elections are for. The real question is who provides us the best service. I don’t think there is any question that that is the Sheriff’s Dept.
Steve, I thought the exact same thing after I had (hastily) posted my reply. We cannot have a referendum for everything. I do trust the elected officials, and would be fine with either decision