Regional Chief of Police – One Step Closer to happening
David Blue/Copper Area
For well over a year, the communities of Hayden, Kearny and Mammoth have been without a police chief. As budgets continue to get tighter and revenues remaining stagnant, cost sharing is starting to become a norm for communities across the country, especially in the Copper Corridor.
For the past six months the local municipalities through the “Five Mayors’ Meeting” have been woking on a process to hire a chief of police that could lead all three individual police departments. Currently Winkelman pays a contract to the Town of Hayden to provide police services in their community. Hayden took the lead to manage the advertising, posting and interviewing of the police chief, in September they made an employment offer to Sgt. David Blue who has served as an interim chief for all three of the communities over the past year.
At a special meeting on Monday night the Kearny town council approved an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Towns of Mammoth, Hayden, Winkelman and Hayden to share a chief of police. Mammoth is expected to review the IGA again and approve on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. A few minor verbiage changes were requested by Kearny to protect each community for each being liable if the chief has liability each of the communities.
