SCOTT CITY STALLED ON HIRING OF POLICE OFFICERS

In the past five weeks, the Scott City Police Department has been without the services of two dispatchers and a patrol officer, leaving the existing staff shorthanded.

But the Scott City Council is virtually helpless to do anything about the vacancies, since the city-appointed police board has not had the members needed to call a meeting for more than a month.

At Tuesday's regular city council meeting, Scott City Mayor Larry Forhan nominated two residents to fill the positions vacated by one member who moved out of town and another board member who retired after several years of service.

His nominations met with some friction from the council members.

"We've been over this same road twenty times," said Ward 2 Councilwoman Ladonna Phelps. "I thought the mayor was supposed to notify us ahead of time of people he plans to nominate to boards.

"I don't like voting on someone I don't know anything about," she said.

Ward 1 Councilwoman Brenda Moyers took the blame for the mayor's surprise appointees. She had urged the mayor at the last regular council meeting, Feb. 7, to bring nominees to Tuesday's meeting.

"We absolutely have to get a police personnel board together so we can hire some people to fill these positions," Moyers said. "I realize it is very hard to get people who are willing to serve on a board like this, but we are in a crisis situation."

With the absence of councilmen Ron Oller and Terry Johnston at Tuesday's meeting, the council voted 4-2 to approve the mayor's nominees -- Lloyd Young and John Vetter. Since a majority vote of the council is needed for approval of nominees, the matter had to be passed to the March 7 council meeting.

The council will also consider emergency hiring tactics at the next meeting, possibly drawing from the existing list of reserve officers and dispatchers.

Another issued the council put off -- until after the April 5 general election -- was a quarter-cent tax increase initiative for street repairs.

At the its Feb. 7 meeting, the council briefly discussed a proposal for additional tax revenues to pave and repair city streets. Tuesday, the council decided it could focus on the issue after other matters -- riverboat gaming, for one -- are decided in the April 5 election.

Forhan announced at Tuesday's meeting that he sent letters to "several" gaming companies, inviting their interest in the community. The specific number of gaming companies he has contacted and the content of the letters were not divulged Tuesday.

Scott City residents will decide whether or not they want riverboat gaming in their community during the April 5 election.

In other business, the council voted to hold a special meeting Monday to vote on an insurance carrier for the city. At Tuesday's meeting, sealed bids were opened from two companies vying for the contract.

W.E. Walker Insurance Co., of Cape Girardeau bid $35,206; Chap Arnold Insurance Agency of Scott City bid $31,086. Council members will discuss the bids at a finance committee meeting Saturday and vote on Monday.