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Oquawka Village Board held Special Meeting

The Oquawka Village Board held a special meeting on Saturday, April 24th at 2 p.m. The meeting was called to address the major repairs that need to be made to the Oquawka Police squad car. Present were Trustees Don Rice, Shawn Lain, Tammy Bundy, Brian Collier, Scott Ray, Brenda Tee, and Village President Nancy Bundy.

Police Chief Clifford Adam stated that on Tuesday, April 20th, he noticed a popping and grinding sound in the front end. He initially thought it was a wheel bearing but after taking it to a repair shop, he was told the car not only needed front and rear brakes, but the rear end was also going out of the car.

Clifford said a used rear end had been found in Indiana but it had 300,000 miles on it. A rebuilt rear-end would cost thousands of dollars, probably more than the car was worth. Swapping the rear end out of the wrecked police car is not an option because that car was totaled and sold to the insurance company.

Trustee Tammy Bundy has been working on a grant for a new police car. She advised the pre-application has been accepted but the earliest the grant would be awarded would be September and could take months after that to actually take possession of a squad car.

Tammy said she felt the board failed when they didn't replace the car that had been wrecked when Clifford hit a deer. When Lain asked how they had failed, Tammy answered they were down to one vehicle and now that vehicle is having issues. Ray stated they did not fail because they expected the grant to go through.

It was decided the board did not want to make repairs to the current car.

Clifford has found several used cars in the $10,000-20,000 price range for the board to consider. Rice stated he felt, if they were to purchase a used car, they should not continue with the grant because the Village would be required to put up 25% of the cost of the new squad, per grant rules. Tee agreed saying they should push the grant back to the following year and went on to say she didn't want to purchase two cars this year. Tammy said it may end up being next year before they could get a car through the grant.

Clifford stated Chicago Motors, where he had located several used police cars, would ship a purchased car to the village for a $300 fee and it would take about a week to receive the car.

After further discussion, Ray made a motion that they purchase a 2016 Chevy Impala police interceptor from Chicago Motors spending up to $15,000 including purchase price, shipping, markings, lights, radio, etc. Second by Collier.

Rice: YES Lain: YES Bundy: YES Collier: YES Ray: YES Tee: YES

Motion carried.

Tee asked what they were going to do in the mean time while waiting on the car to be delivered. Clifford advised they could possibly borrow a squad car from the Village of Gladstone since the Gladstone police chief was out, due to an injury. The board agreed to ask Gladstone to borrow the car.

After more discussion about what to do in the event Gladstone would not give Oquawka permission to use the squad car, Rice made a motion that if the village can't get a car, they lay Clifford off. Second by Tee.

Rice: YES Lain: YES Bundy: NO Collier: NO Ray: NO Tee: YES

Village President Nancy Bundy broke the tie with a YES vote.

Motion Carried.

The meeting, which lasted a little over forty-seven minutes, was adjourned.

Author's note:

It was told to me that Trustee Don Rice went to Chicago Motors on Monday, April 25th and picked up the purchased car in order to save the shipping fee and speed up the process.

Today, I personally witnessed Supreme Communications, who handles the county and village's digital radio needs, tending to the new police car at Village Hall.

Jeff Tee

River Rat News

"Just the facts, Ma'am"