Board approves additional funding for the police on Monday

By Matt Freeze

The Village of Owego Trustees approved repairs last Monday to the police department’s emergency backup generator and voted to increase the salaries of a few part-time police officers.

Village Police Chief Joe Kennedy told the board that the department’s emergency generator has been malfunctioning and is in need of repairs. 

The board unanimously approved repairs not to exceed $13,000, with funds coming from the contractual services budget line. 

Village Attorney Nathan VanWhy said the bid process wasn’t required because of the emergency nature of the repair. 

Trustee Rusty Fuller said the generator is critical since it supports the village’s emergency operation center. 

Kennedy said there was an option to send the part out to be rebuilt, but he didn’t know the time period or how much money it would save. 

“They’re pretty much changing everything — all the hoses and pumps,” Kennedy said. 

The board agreed it wasn’t worth risking downtime of the generator when the savings might be negligible. 

In other village business, trustees approved raises for a handful of part-time police officers. 

Kennedy said he wanted to get their pay bumped up to be more in line with what other municipalities pay. 

“These guys aren’t working a ton of hours; some of them only work three days a month,” said Kennedy, and he added that the raises were covered in the department’s budget. 

One officer went from $18 an hour to $22, three officers went from $20 to $22 and one went from $20 to $22.50. 

Lastly, trustees also briefly noted that VanWhy had been given the information needed to work on the tentative chicken ordinance, and it should be ready for discussion at the next village meeting. 

(Matt Freeze is a Senior Staff Writer with the Morning Times)