CAPD chief: Dorchester unlikely to accept offer
Colby-Abby police chief Jason Bauer told the police commission Monday that he doesn’t think the village of Dorchester will accept his offer for 24/7 police coverage.
“I doubt that’s going to happen, just from the things I’ve heard,” Bauer said. “But, they haven’t contacted me yet.”
Bauer attended a July 7 village board meeting in Dorchester with an offer to provide around-the-clock police patrols to the village for an annual cost of $207,000 — the price of hiring two fulltime officers. Since then, Dorchester’s village board has also been approached the Clark County Sheriff’s Department with an offer to share a deputy with the village of Curtiss, which is also in need of police protection.
Meanwhile, Bauer said Colby-Abby offi cers are routinely being called to other municipalities in the area to cover calls when Clark County deputies are otherwise occupied.
“Over the weekend, it was so busy, we ended up going over to Owen for a domestic (disturbance) and Dorchester for a domestic,” he said. “It’s all the time.”
Still, Bauer emphasized that the relationship with the sheriff’s department is reciprocal, with deputies often coming into Abbotsford and Colby to help out with calls. This past weekend, for example, deputies handled a local drunk driving incident while the CAPD was preoccupied with a juvenile call, he said.
“So, they help us, we help them,” he said. “It all works out.”
The commission voted to purchase two new cameras for the interview room and the intoxilyzer room at the police station, at cost of $10,390. Bauer said the current two-camera system frequently experiences technical difficulties, including muffled sound recording.
“It’s not working like it did 11 years ago when we put it in,” he said.
The new cameras will be purchased from Watch Guard, that same company that provides dash cameras for the department’s squad vehicles. Bauer said the company’s system allows video files to be uploaded directly to the department’s computer server, which makes it much easier to review the footage. The older cameras are much more time-consuming to use, he said.
“It probably takes 30 minutes to get everything prepared to make a CD,” he said, noting that police secretary Jessica Weich recently spent “all afternoon” retrieving a long video.
Bauer acknowledged that the department will be way over its budget for equipment purchases this year, but he’s hoping to transfer some health insurance savings to cover the overage.
“We went from one person left on a family plan to his replacement, who is on a single plan,” he explained.
Other business
_ Bauer told the commission that the Wisconsin DOT briefly set up a 360-degree camera at the intersection of STH 13 and Oak Road to monitor traffic in an area where a young motorcyclist was recently killed. With all of the semi traffi c going in and out of the nearby gas stations, the intersection has long been considered a dangerous one.
“They’re already looking at ways to improve that intersection,” he said.
_ Bauer said the department’s newest squad vehicle, a 2020 Dodge, appears to be having problems with its head gasket, so a repair will be needed.
_ The department’s K-9 unit was deployed seven times in the last month, resulting in six arrests.
_ Bauer said the department’s newest member, Christian Lemay, started at the end of July and is already proving himself to be a good officer.
“You can tell he’s experienced for sure,” he said, referring to Lemay’s past work history with the Chippewa Falls Police Department.
_ The commission met in closed session with the local police officers union to discuss contract negotiations.
_ The commission approved $17,159 in monthly expenditures.
