WPD Officer Moving To Virginia; K-9 Mako To Retire And Go Along
August 16, 2019 at 11:36 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Patrol officer Trent Shively submitted a letter of resignation to Chief Scott Whitaker’s office, effective Aug. 29. Shively and his family will be moving to Virginia for Shively to pursue a career in management. Deputy Chief Bryan Sherwin said Shively has been with the WPD for the last 8-1/2 years.
K-9 Mako is assigned to Shively, who has requested to retire Mako and allow him to purchase Mako.
Mako is 9 years old and has been a part of the WPD for six years, Sherwin said.
“With retirement of a dog that costs so much money, we had Captain (Joel) Beam assist us with the pricing on it. Captain Beam himself was a canine handler and he’s in charge of a K-9,” Sherwin said.
It’s been determined that the average life span of a “dual-purpose dog is 10 years, with Mako being 9,” he said. “For us to train or spend the money to train another officer to be his handler – a.) if the dog will even accept that officer, b.) the additional cost would be $8,000 plus for maybe a year, year and a half more of service,” Sherwin said.
To purchase a new dog and train it and the officer would be around $20,000.
Sherwin said Whitaker has requested, with the Board of Works’ permission, to allow Shively to retire and purchase Mako.
According to the purchase agreement, the city of Warsaw will sell Mako to Shively for $1.
Board member George Clemens said it makes sense and moved to approve letting Shively retire and buy Mako. The board unanimously approved.
Since Shively’s resignation was unexpected, a replacement officer and K-9 was not budgeted for 2020, but the WPD has two other K-9s. Once Shively is gone, the department also will have four openings, though there is money budgeted to replace two of them next year.
In other business, the Board of Works approved:
• A payment application for $532,655.46 to HRP Construction Inc. for construction concerning the Airport Industrial Park Sewer project. The project is expected to be completed in August 2020. Skinner said it is a bond issue through the Redevelopment Authority and the Board of Works is authorized to make the payments for the project.
Thallemer said the project is a $6 million investment on the city’s part as a result of the annexation of the property.
“I think the investment the city is making on this certainly is being a payoff. The city is in the process of finalizing our assessed value increase, and it looks like – I checked with the auditor and rechecked the numbers – and it looks like our increase in assessed value is going to be $151 million. A big part of that is from the annexation of that area property that is involved,” Thallemer said.
He said it also includes some growth in the community, though he didn’t have exact figures broken down. Retrending is also involved in that assessed value figure.
“But that’s a pretty significant increase in our assessed value. It’s going to broaden our tax base significantly,”?he said.
Thallemer said the property owners out there requested new roads and sewer in that area so the properties could continue to thrive and be developed. The city responded with an involuntary annexation, and offered an abatement for those properties as part of the involuntary annexation.
The properties are now in the city and are reflected in Warsaw’s assessed value.
Thallemer thanked Skinner for all his work in the annexation process.
• The purchase of property from Kohl’s for $8,660 to complete the roundabout project at the intersection of CR 300N and Shelden Street. City Planner Jeremy Skinner said it is the last parcel needed for the project and it took about a year to get this accomplished. The price is the average of two appraisals. The two appraised values were for $9,720 and $7,600.
• Blocking off two parking spaces at the corner of Buffalo and Center streets downtown Warsaw to allow for food vendors on Fridays in August. The request was made by the Warsaw Community Development Corp., with the vendors selling their food from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The parking spaces will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. If the food vendors don’t acknowledge to the city that they will be there, the parking spaces won’t be blocked off.
• A pay application totaling $45,058.32 to Roche Constructors Inc. for the Lucerne Amphitheater project. This is the first application for the project and is primarily for materials and earthwork, according to Warsaw Senior Planner Justin Taylor.
• Accepting two parcels from Harrison Lake Development Inc. on the north side of Harrison Ridge Subdivision, east of Husky Trail.
The wastewater utility maintains a sanitary pump station east of the two parcels and must cross the two parcels to access the pump station. There also is a stormwater drainage swale along the southern boundary of the two parcels in need of maintenance. The two parcels serve no benefit to the subdivision.
• New hires and changes in payroll, as requested by Human Resources Director Jennifer Whitaker.
“Got some part-time firefighters coming on board, they’re ready to go. We have a couple who actually obtained their EMT certifications so that’s a little bit higher pay rate,” she said.
Part-time firefighters who obtained their EMT certification and received a pay bump were Royal Pletcher and Andrew Stump. They will receive $14.50 per hour.
New part-time firefighters hired at $13 per hour were Dakota Reed and Jeremiah Norwood. New part-timers hired at $14.50 per hour were Jay Patton, David Sommers, Megan Berry and Zachary Gardner.
Patrol officer Trent Shively submitted a letter of resignation to Chief Scott Whitaker’s office, effective Aug. 29. Shively and his family will be moving to Virginia for Shively to pursue a career in management. Deputy Chief Bryan Sherwin said Shively has been with the WPD for the last 8-1/2 years.
K-9 Mako is assigned to Shively, who has requested to retire Mako and allow him to purchase Mako.
Mako is 9 years old and has been a part of the WPD for six years, Sherwin said.
“With retirement of a dog that costs so much money, we had Captain (Joel) Beam assist us with the pricing on it. Captain Beam himself was a canine handler and he’s in charge of a K-9,” Sherwin said.
It’s been determined that the average life span of a “dual-purpose dog is 10 years, with Mako being 9,” he said. “For us to train or spend the money to train another officer to be his handler – a.) if the dog will even accept that officer, b.) the additional cost would be $8,000 plus for maybe a year, year and a half more of service,” Sherwin said.
To purchase a new dog and train it and the officer would be around $20,000.
Sherwin said Whitaker has requested, with the Board of Works’ permission, to allow Shively to retire and purchase Mako.
According to the purchase agreement, the city of Warsaw will sell Mako to Shively for $1.
Board member George Clemens said it makes sense and moved to approve letting Shively retire and buy Mako. The board unanimously approved.
Since Shively’s resignation was unexpected, a replacement officer and K-9 was not budgeted for 2020, but the WPD has two other K-9s. Once Shively is gone, the department also will have four openings, though there is money budgeted to replace two of them next year.
In other business, the Board of Works approved:
• A payment application for $532,655.46 to HRP Construction Inc. for construction concerning the Airport Industrial Park Sewer project. The project is expected to be completed in August 2020. Skinner said it is a bond issue through the Redevelopment Authority and the Board of Works is authorized to make the payments for the project.
Thallemer said the project is a $6 million investment on the city’s part as a result of the annexation of the property.
“I think the investment the city is making on this certainly is being a payoff. The city is in the process of finalizing our assessed value increase, and it looks like – I checked with the auditor and rechecked the numbers – and it looks like our increase in assessed value is going to be $151 million. A big part of that is from the annexation of that area property that is involved,” Thallemer said.
He said it also includes some growth in the community, though he didn’t have exact figures broken down. Retrending is also involved in that assessed value figure.
“But that’s a pretty significant increase in our assessed value. It’s going to broaden our tax base significantly,”?he said.
Thallemer said the property owners out there requested new roads and sewer in that area so the properties could continue to thrive and be developed. The city responded with an involuntary annexation, and offered an abatement for those properties as part of the involuntary annexation.
The properties are now in the city and are reflected in Warsaw’s assessed value.
Thallemer thanked Skinner for all his work in the annexation process.
• The purchase of property from Kohl’s for $8,660 to complete the roundabout project at the intersection of CR 300N and Shelden Street. City Planner Jeremy Skinner said it is the last parcel needed for the project and it took about a year to get this accomplished. The price is the average of two appraisals. The two appraised values were for $9,720 and $7,600.
• Blocking off two parking spaces at the corner of Buffalo and Center streets downtown Warsaw to allow for food vendors on Fridays in August. The request was made by the Warsaw Community Development Corp., with the vendors selling their food from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The parking spaces will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. If the food vendors don’t acknowledge to the city that they will be there, the parking spaces won’t be blocked off.
• A pay application totaling $45,058.32 to Roche Constructors Inc. for the Lucerne Amphitheater project. This is the first application for the project and is primarily for materials and earthwork, according to Warsaw Senior Planner Justin Taylor.
• Accepting two parcels from Harrison Lake Development Inc. on the north side of Harrison Ridge Subdivision, east of Husky Trail.
The wastewater utility maintains a sanitary pump station east of the two parcels and must cross the two parcels to access the pump station. There also is a stormwater drainage swale along the southern boundary of the two parcels in need of maintenance. The two parcels serve no benefit to the subdivision.
• New hires and changes in payroll, as requested by Human Resources Director Jennifer Whitaker.
“Got some part-time firefighters coming on board, they’re ready to go. We have a couple who actually obtained their EMT certifications so that’s a little bit higher pay rate,” she said.
Part-time firefighters who obtained their EMT certification and received a pay bump were Royal Pletcher and Andrew Stump. They will receive $14.50 per hour.
New part-time firefighters hired at $13 per hour were Dakota Reed and Jeremiah Norwood. New part-timers hired at $14.50 per hour were Jay Patton, David Sommers, Megan Berry and Zachary Gardner.
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