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City officially pulls from joint law enforcement center

  • Nathan Cork receiving his badge from Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson after being sworn in as a Charles City Police officer by Mayor James Erb. Press photo by Thomas Nelson.

  • Mayor James Erb swears in Nathan Cork as a Charles City Police officer at the April 17 City Council meeting. Press photo by Thomas Nelson.

  • Mayor James Erb swears in Justin Haberkorn as a Charles City Police officer at the April 17 City Council meeting. Press photo by Thomas Nelson.

  • Officers Nathan Cork and Dustin Haberkorn after being sworn at the Charles City Council meeting Monday, April 17. Press photo by Thomas Nelson.

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

The city voted to unanimously for a motion to withdraw from the joint law enforcement study with Floyd County.

The vote came during the Charles City Council meeting Monday, April 17.

The withdraw comes after a law enforcement committee researched ways to combine the Charles City Police Department, Floyd County Sheriff and Floyd County Jail into one building.

The price that the Prochaska and Associates, the same firm that was commissioned for the study, came up with to update the city facilities was between $2.5 million and $3.5 million, while the cost to move to a new location was between $3.5 million and $4.8 million, said Charles City Administrator Steven Diers during the city council meeting.

“The price range seemed a little too high for moving and co-locating to what we would receive as a benefit,” Diers said. “The county and city work well the way it is. Being co-located would be a nice benefit, but for what we saw it just didn’t justify the cost.”

The county is still discussing moving forward with the project with city representation, Diers said.

“I don’t think this is a reflection in anyway of the county or the board, I think we would of been remiss if we had not pursued this to the depth we had,” said Charles City Council member and Law Enforcement Committee member Keith Starr.

Even by moving the city and police department to the new building there still would be a problem of what to do with the current building housing those entities, said Charles City Council member and Law Enforcement Committee member Delaine Freeseman.

“This is kind of a specialty type building its probably not going to have a real huge market,” Freeseman said.

In the beginning of the council meeting Charles City Mayor James Erb swore in two new Charles City police officers, Nathan Cork and Dustin Haberkorn.

Cork was a walk-on for the Iowa State football team and Haberkorn is a Charles City native.

Both came on to the Charles City Police department in March.

The city also approved contracts and bonds for the Bunn Avenue sanitary sewer replacement project, Rolfing Street water main replacement project and Clark Street sidewalk extension project.

There was a public hearing set on the conveyance of property for the June 5 City Council meeting.

During the City Administrator’s report, Diers noted that the First Avenue bridge closing was not related to the Charley Western Bridge’s partial collapse.

 

 

 

 

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