Williamsburg Police plan to target speeders, discuss school resource officer

Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird addressed members of the city council Monday night.

The need for a full-time school resource officer and problems with too many speeders were two of the issues that Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird discussed during a presentation to the Williamsburg City Council Monday evening.

"We really need a school resource officer at our school," Bird said. "We are currently working with the mayor and the city school to look at ways to implement the school resource officer."

During Monday’s monthly meeting, the city council heard annual year-end reports from the police and fire departments supervisors in addition to a report from the Kentucky Splash Waterpark.

Bird said authorities would like to place an officer at the school five days a week but he’s not sure that city and school budget constraints will allow that to take place.

While there is a grant available that will partially pay for a school resource officer, Bird said the chances of getting the grant in a school this small probably aren’t good.

In addition, the amount the grant covers decreases over time.

Bird said by the third year the school has to assume the full cost of the school resource officer position.

"We are looking at ways to get an officer there without a grant. We really need a school resource officer," Bird said.
Last year Williamsburg police investigated 264 accidents in the city limits.

"That’s a lot of accidents for a small city. Speeding was a contributing factor in the majority of those," Bird said. "Speed continues to be a problem for our city."

In the past the city has used money from mini grants to pay police overtime for increased traffic enforcement efforts.
Deputy Chief Jason Caddell is working on a grant application that would cover increased traffic enforcement for the whole year.
Bird noted that the city’s DUI conviction rate is up to 75 percent, which is higher than previous years.

Bird said a number of factors have contributed to that including Whitley County Attorney Bob Hammons and his staff working closely with officers to prosecute the cases and cameras in police cruisers.

In addition, Williamsburg Police Sgt. Brandon White is a nationally recognized drug recognition expert, who specializes in DUI cases.

Use of force incidents, where an officer has to use a taser or baton on a subject, are down. Last year there were only two incidents where officers had to deploy tasers.

"One of them we had a little issue on but thank God for the camera system. It really saved us on that one," Bird said.
Williamsburg Fire Chief James Privett informed the council that his department had 217 runs last year.

"We are kind of overwhelmed with lifting assistance calls," Privett said.

He noted his department sometimes responds to two or three such calls per day.

Lifting assistance ranges from helping older people up, who fell in the floor, to helping EMT’s load patients into ambulances.

"We don’t mind helping a bit if we can keep the cost down," Privett added.

Paid firefighters at the city are required to train 100 hours per year and the fire department conducts training sessions three times a month on Thursday evenings.

"It keeps us pretty busy," Privett added.

Kentucky Splash Waterpark Manager Diane Bruers told the council that attendance at the waterpark rose by nearly 20,000 people this year to 110,407 people.

Bruers told the council that attendance increased dramatically starting in 2010 after the waterpark reduced the daily admission price to $10.

In 2009, 63,958 people visited the waterpark compared to 85,793 in 2010.

Harrison said that the miniature golf course will be renovated this spring at the waterpark, and that officials hope to leave it open through October so visitors to the new RV Park can use it. The RV Park is being built adjacent to the waterpark.
Bruers noted that the miniature golf course badly needs renovation.

She said that city officials began advertising the RV Park on the Internet last week and have already gotten some interested callers.

In other business, the council:

• Approved a $125,000 contract with Summit Engineering to recertify the Williamsburg floodwall and levy.

Harrison said that Summit was the only company which bid on the project. The recertification must be completed by September under a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mandate.

• Held the first reading of a new floodplain damage prevention ordinance and repealed the 2006 ordinance.

Harrison said that the new ordinance must be adopted by March 16 or city residents, who live in the flood plain, would lose flood insurance on homes.

Among other things, the ordinance requires that in cases of new construction or substantial improvement that the lowest floor be elevated to or above the base flood elevation and that the floor be flood proofed.

• Learned that the state had again turned down a request for the installation of a traffic light at the intersection of Ky. 92 and Penny Lane.

"Engineers go by numbers and the numbers aren’t there. We’re not giving up but we did get turned down again," Harrison added.

• Discussed installation of new water meters.

Harrison said that customers would be sent a letter, a news release would be sent out and door hangers would be left on homes before new water meters are installed.

Installation will probably start in about one month and be completed by May.

City officials hope to better track water usage with the new meters so that more accurate billing can be sent to customers.