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Tour Of Public Safety Building Demonstrates Need For New Police Station
By Brian Addison
What do you get when you stack a police department on top of a fire department? You get two city departments that must operate in a compromised environment, resulting in less efficiently run public services, according to city emergency service officials. About three years ago, the Baker City Police Department joined the Baker City Fire Department in the Public Safety Building, sharing the same 2,200-foot space. Three years has given both department chiefs time enough to base an opinion on sharing the facility and both are in agreement, the compromised working environment has created problems for both departments and limits services to the public.
Police Chief Wyn Lohner and Fire Chief Jim Price led a tour through the Public Safety Building last week and during the tour both pointed to one very important factor that might go unnoticed by the general public and that is the nature of the work involved and the differences between police work and work performed by the fire/paramedic department. As the tour passed the fire fighter/paramedic lounge, Chief Lohner said, “EMTs have a pretty stressful job, and sometimes they need space for themselves.” Lohner then pointed to a door near the lounge area that police must use on a regular basis. The necessary foot-traffic through that door has eliminated any private area that existed before the merger of the two departments.
Baker City, One Step Closer To Nicer Sidewalks And A City Sidewalk Fee
By Brian Addison
The Baker City Council meeting Feb. 26 opened with approval of the consent agenda, which included approval of two resolutions, one resolution written for the provision of codification services to the city’s existing ordinance book and a resolution authorizing the transfer of funds within the city budget to pay for the codification services.
Resolution for codification services lists total cost of services at $13,220; with $10,800 “for the reformatting of the City’s ordinances into a new code that is better organized and easier to understand.” The additional $2,420 for “legal research and review, whereby our existing ordinances are brought up to date based on current legal practices.” To cover the expense, $5,288 comes out of the Contingency Fund and into Contracted Services fund.
Bill To Place Microstamping Identifiers On Semiautomatic Pistols Introduced To Congress
By Debby Schoeningh
“The whole thing is ludicrous,” says Bill Vandyck of Baker City referring to a bill that was introduced Feb. 7, which would require microstamping identifiers on all semi-automatic pistols sold after Jan. 1, 2010. Vandyck who has worked in both law enforcement and retail sales of firearms says if passed, this bill would put undue stress on the gun manufacturer, the retailer, and the consumer and sportsman. The added cost to manufacture firearms with the identifier and maintain a registration database, he says would also be passed on down the line to the consumer.
“The cost will make it even more restrictive for people to buy guns and it won’t work,” he says. The microstamping is easy to remove, says Vandyck and criminals don’t exactly line up to buy registered guns, much less one with this capability. “It will just make it that much more difficult for legitimate consumers to buy a gun.”
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