The Marion County Board has given its approval to a new mutual aid agreement with the Salem and Centralia Police Departments.
Salem Police Chief Kyle Ambuehl, Centralia Police Chief Chris Locke, and Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps all signed the agreement after the conclusion of Tuesday night’s county board meeting. Salem and Centralia earlier approved the agreement. During the meeting, all three explained how they planned to work more closely together on major cases and assist each other in times of manpower shortages.
In answer to a question, Cripps said if deputies were out of position to handle a call close to either city limits they could ask for the city police departments to do the initial response. In return, the sheriff said his officers could help the two police departments in a similar manpower shortage if they were close by.
The board hired former deputy circuit clerk Lori Linder as the new part-time board secretary ending a lengthy search. Linder will be paid $500 a month to serve as the county’s freedom of information officer, $50 to attend each meeting and $14 an hour for up to 29 hours a week to assist the board with needed clerical help.
The board approved a $74,500 contract with Security Alarm of Salem to install a new fire alarm system at the Law Enforcement Center. The current system has not been working for some time. The sheriff said its replacement needed to be a top priority.
The board approved the appointment of Bo Baer to the Marion County Housing Authority Board, replacing Georgia Miller who resigned last December.
The county’s revenue from both the quarter-cent and one-cent sales tax is up from February a year ago. The quarter-cent sales tax collected $81,710 dollars, a nearly $4,700 increase, and the one-cent sales tax collected $38,003, a nearly three thousand dollar increase over last February.
