By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
UNIONVILLE — Police service in the village of Unionville wasn’t suspended because of a technicality even though the council voted to do so.
During the last village meeting, a motion was made and seconded “to suspend the police force until the council received the requested schedule,” stated the un-approved minutes.
Some on the council took issue with it being the second time a police report wasn’t provided and neither of the two part-time officers attend a meeting to give a report.
The council vote was three “yes,” one “no” with one council member abstaining citing possible conflict of interest, said village Clerk Carole Gangler.
Even though the motion received a majority of the votes of those present at the meeting, it didn’t pass.
“We have seven seats on the council but only six of them are filled at this time. So because we never voted to change the number of council members, four votes are still needed to take action,” said village President Dean Hartman. “We had this issue come up awhile back. We checked with the Michigan Municipal League (MML) then and that’s what they told us. It’s suppose to be a seven member board so four votes are needed to take action. So in following that, it didn’t pass.”
Also, at the time of the meeting, Police Chief Paul Strasz was on vacation.
“I talked with him and worked things out. He said there will be a report at the next meeting,” said Hartman.
According to Hartman, frustration with state regulations is also an underlying cause of discontent with the police department.
“The state keeps pressuring everyone to consolidate services in order to get state revenue sharing. We rely heavily on that state money, but there is only so much small communities can do,” he said. “We looked at a couple of options, but either they didn’t work out or were more expensive.”
The village looked at the possibility of sharing police services with the village of Sebewaing, which is about six miles away; and also the possibility of contracting with the Tuscola County Sheriff’s Department for coverage.
“Both were more expensive than what our department costs to operate. Plus, Sebewaing is in
Huron County, so that’s a different county with another dispatch center,” said Hartman.
Also, a survey of services was done with residents which included police coverage.
“We want to do what we can within our finances to meet the needs of residents,” said Hartman. “We are still looking at doing what we can on consolidating services to get state money.”
One thing the village did do was agree to share equipment with Sebewaing’s DPW, which will help meet some of the state’s consolidation of services requirement.
The next village meeting is 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 16.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.