The Pine City Council discussed increasing coverage from the Pine County Sheriff’s Office at Wednesday’s meeting.
Council member Kyle Palmer requested information from sheriff Jeff Nelson about the potential cost of 24/7/365 coverage from the sheriff’s office.
“We put a lot of money and resources into parks, we put money into our schools, we put money into our housing development projects, and we keep asking the deputies to continuously patrol those areas because we keep seeing problems,” Palmer said. “And I think that we need a heavier police presence than less of a police presence.”
Nelson said he estimated that 24/7 coverage would cost the city more than $721,000.
“That’s kind of a starting point,” Nelson said. “It was a really quick estimation of hours at the current contracted rate. It would take a little bit of fine-tuning those numbers if we’re going to do something longer term that I could commit to.”
Nelson added that hiring to fill shifts would be a hurdle to clear for the sheriff’s office.
Pine City’s current contract is currently about $230,000 for 10 hours of coverage.
“I would advocate, obviously, for a little more coverage in Pine City too,” Nelson said. “I think the calls support that. Again, if you want to start the conversation and see where it goes, I’m more than willing to come to a committee or whatever that would look like for you guys.”
Parks and public buildings manager Brock Bloomquist also inquired about boosting coverage on a seasonal basis.
“That would take a little more discussion to see how it works,” Nelson said.
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