It was a full house at the Perryville Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday. A number of Perryville residents and Perryville police officers gathered to voice their opinions and displeasure about something coming in the future.
Multiple people addressed the board about the perceived notion that Perry County Commission looking to outsource its police dispatch to another county once the Perry County Joint Justice Center is completed. The move was thought to result in multiple people losing their positions. Many of the people in attendance Tuesday did not feel this was the right move, especially when it came to police officer safety, and the general family atmosphere and relationship between the local dispatch and the city.
“I have a second generation child who decided to come to work for Perryville because she believed in the police department and the police family as I did,” Perryville Police Cpl. Jeri Cain said. The people here have supported me every day on the job. You’ve had a lot of people come up here and talk about safety and there are multiple things I could say. I would like the people here to think about the people who call 911 and can only describe the things around them and are confused. The people outside of this community may not know what the levy road is, or where five mile drive is, but our dispatchers do. Someone two or three counties away is not going to now that.”
The decision about the dispatch ultimately comes down to the Perry County Commission and there are several meetings scheduled between the city and county officials, as well as the police department in the coming week.
The board also approved the five-year Capital Improvement Plan for FY 2024-25 to 2028-29.
This final Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) has been prepared by staff and is presented to the Board as a continued path forward for the City of Perryville. The approved CIP will lead staff directly into next year’s budget preparation. Once approved, staff will begin engineering projects slated for next year’s budget (e.g. street design). As proposed, staff has suggested the City obtain financing for a couple of larger, unusual projects (e.g. runway reconstruction).
“The first year is the one where we really want to focus,” Perryville City Administrator Brent Buerck said. “Five years out is really our best guess to where we will be. A lot of the purchases in the fire department are done so we always have new and fresh equipment. The same with the things like police cruisers. We have put a lot of effort into the streets to identify the ones in the worst conditions.”
