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Thomas Williams
I would like to thank the citizens of Satsuma for having faith in me by electing me to serve as their City Council Place 4 Representative. I thank Mayor Stewart for appointing me as chairman of the Public Safety Committee and I am grateful to the city council for selecting me to serve as Mayor Pro Tempore. As Public Safety Chairman, I have enjoyed working with and getting to know our police, fire and court personnel. This council is working well together for the benefit of our city and I believe that we will meet any challenge that arises during the next three and half years.
In 2008, Satsuma contracted with Mobile County to participate in the County 911 dial up system for reporting fire and medical emergency calls. Any citizen of Satsuma having a fire or medical emergency is urged to dial 911 and not the Satsuma Police or Fire Departments. Dialing 911 has resulted in better service for our citizens by increasing the arrival time of the fire department, EMT's and ambulance service. This change has also resulted in two trained EMT's being on duty at the fire station 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
The Insurance Service Office (ISO) has informed the fire department that they will hold an inspection later this year. The ISO is the agency that sets the public fire rating of municipalities which affects all home and business owners in the city. The last inspection was in 1989. Since that time the department has made and continues to make improvements of equipment and training for our fire fighters. The voluntary dollar a month program, paid with the monthly water bill, has been responsible for many improvements over the years. Each home and business owner is urged to participate in this important program. The long range goal of the city is to lower our public fire rate from a 5/ 9 to 4/7. This would result in lower home owner insurance rates for our citizens.
The Police Department has just received a new 2009 Dodge police cruiser. All the police cruisers now have digital cameras and all but one have on board computers. The department is receiving an average of 1500 assignments per month. Therefore, the cameras and computers are vital tools in handling that volume of activity. The department welcomes two new officers, Officer Andy Lee and Officer Delane Lee. (not related) Both have completed the police academy and are assigned to duty. In addition to the continued training of these new officers, the department is engaging in a variety of continued training for all department personnel.
The city council has applied for a grant through the United States Department of Justice Hiring Recovery Program. This program called COPS provides funds to hire two new additional police officers and pay their salary for 3 years. The city must agree to pay the salary for one additional year. If we receive this grant it will be a great asset for the city and we remain hopeful that this will become a reality.
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