The Safety and Licensing Committee met 08/23/2023. In addition to voting to approve the purchase of new radios for the Fire Department, the committee received a few information items.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
2023 EDWARD BYRN MEMORIAL JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAG)
The Appleton Police Department and the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department had received $24,842 to be shared between them. The Appleton Police Department’s portion would be approximately $12,400. Assistant Chief Todd Freeman mentioned that where those funds would be used was still up in the air and that he did not know what Chief Polly Olson had in mind for it yet.
The item before the committee was just an update letting the members know that the grant had been accepted. It would come back before the Safety and Licensing Committee or the Finance Committee once the Police Department was ready to apply it toward something.
FIRE DEPARTMENT WE ENERGIES GRANT
The Fire Department was awarded a $2,000 grant from WE Energies. They were planning to use it to purchase some intravenous IV training mannequins that they could practice delivering fluids and medication on.
FIRE DEPARTMENT BATTALION CHIEF OF EMS HIRING
The Battalion Chief of EMS position had been approved in the 2023 budget. The individual who took on that role about 4 ½ months ago realized that the schedule change it entailed was not conducive to family life, so he wanted to go back to his old position and stepped down in July.
The city has started the hiring process and has had multiple applicants. They conducted some interviews around 2 weeks prior to the committee meeting and were going to push one candidate forward to the Police and Fire Commission. If that went well, they hoped to make that candidate an offer and have them in that role by early October.
POLICE DEPARTMENT UPDATE ON JOINT PURCHASE OF COMMAND POST
In the middle of 2022, the City of Appleton and Outagamie County jointly purchased a mobile command center to be used by the two departments. That vehicle was manufactured by Farber Specialty Vehicles in Columbo, OH, and was now ready to be picked up. A member of the Police Department and a member of the Sheriff’s Department were going to fly down to Columbus, go through a day long training on how to use the vehicle, and then drive it back to Appleton.
Farber Specialty absorbed about a $37,000 price increase on the chassis of the vehicle but did pass on a $15,000 increase over the preliminary bid that would need to be jointly covered by Appleton and Outagamie County. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department was going to cover the approximately $20,000 needed to equip the command post with office equipment, two desktop computers, two laptop computers, and a high-speed internet connection.
Assistant Chief Freeman noted that the city’s current mobile command post had been purchased used in 2008 and had served the department well. They were going to continue using it as an evidence vehicle.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1112093&GUID=1A8302D0-865E-44E6-ABCF-4BEEA7C584FB
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