The Silver Lake Village Board met with Sheriff David Beth at the end of Wednesday’s Village Board meeting to discuss contracting out village police protection to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department.
The meeting with Beth was behind closed doors and lasted more than an hour.
When the board reconvened in open session, village President Sue Gerber announced the closed session was about contracting out police protection to the KCSD. She also said that a meeting will be set for Beth to answer additional questions from the board and the public. March 26 was set as the tentative date for the meeting. The village will seek to hold the meeting at Riverview School, but might have to change the date depending on availability of the school, said Robert Mulcahey, village attorney.
Before the closed session, Trustee Patrick Dunn objected to the board moving to a closed session, saying the issue to be discussed should be done in public.
A motion to hold the public meeting next week passed unanimously, with Trustee Mike Decker absent.
The Silver Lake Police Department has had two chiefs resign within the last six months.
The villages of Paddock Lake and Bristol currently contract for police protection with KCSD.
Who will the “villagers” blame now that the CURRENT board decided to do this? One of their main fights was to protect the police department and now their own people have turned on them! I guess the “dissolvers” actually do know what they are talking about! Maybe the board will actually start to support the fire department and not some private organization
A pro-active move by our board, recognizing the need to upgrade our police department. Shouldn’t fire & rescue deserve the same concerns? Upgrade to PARAMEDIC LEVEL SERVICE TODAY!
The rescue squad has to be nervous right now. The ‘villagers’ put up signs to save the police department, and now are working to disolve it and contract with county. There are save ‘silver lake’ signs and ‘save silver lake rescue’ signs, I wonder who is the next target?
How funny is it that the “Dissolvers” are some desperate for any win that they will make something out of nothing. The current board is doing their jobs. They are exploring all options and areas that may or may not be able to save us money.
Call David Beth….One Call….THAT’S ALL!!!
Let’s put this in perspective, folks. 2 police chiefs “resigned”(retired). Village DID NOT fully replace full time police chief, police officers originally requested looking into contracting with KCSD…..and the village board at least should practice “Due Diligence” in considering what options Sheriff Beth and his department might have to offer. The “Villagers” are now trying to push the their theory that the “Dissolvers” are responsible for this. Given that Pat Dunn is “the Lone Ranger” on the board, that’s a pretty lonnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg stretchhhhhhhhhhhhh. Seems like the CURRENT board, under the leadership of SUE GERBER, requested this meeting with Sheriff Beth. I think it was a judicious move, to at least CONSIDER our options, something that SMACKS IN THE FACE of the “Status Quo” folks. There will be a public meeting for folks to come out and hear the facts and voice their opinions. “Been There, Done That” with the fire/rescue ad hoc committee proceedings….unfortunately, in this case, the “status quo” in not really a viable option!
@”keep grasping at straws”……keep sipping on that “Villagers Kool-Aid”! According to your logic, if the board is “doing their job”….”trying to save us money”….you won’t have any problem at all if they decide that KCSD can provide our law enforcement in the village while “saving us money”. You applaud the board for “exploring all options”………..where you ‘living in a cave” when the Ad Hoc Committee was basically “run out of town” for trying to do EXACTLY THAT(explore all options) with our fire & rescue services. And in case you FORGOT, the AHC DID present 5 options,one of them being “Status Quo”.
Kudos to the village board for looking into this as a possibility. This is what we elect and pay for them to do.
Each option will come with its good and bad points. The only way to responsibly make decisions is to gather and examine the facts.
This is not a ‘villagers’ vs ‘dissolvers’ issue. Even so some would like to turn it into one.
I think this is the best way to go, the current police will have some stability with the KSD hopefully more money and better benefits. Let’s face it our economy is still not stable and I truly believe the village is also a little shake. It’s nice to see some one not loose there job, and hopefully they will be assigned Silver lake to parole.
Ralph Jankovic
Burlington Township has done the same thing we are now looking to do. Eliminated their police, and turned over command to the Sheriff of Racine County. All officers of Burlington Township were then, made deputies, and not one job was lost. In fact they got better benefits too, and the township, a huge savings. This is a smart thing to do. Come and show support for this next Thursday! This is not a Villager’s versus Dissolvers. This is for the benefit of our sweet little town, Silver Take..
Don’t see where it was stated that our SilverLake police will be absorbed into the KCSD. The funny thing is that suddenly the current board is trying to save money just before the up coming election. This along with fire and rescue should have been looked at a long time ago. They are all excited about this but nothing is said how they are going to get out from under the library. All of this should be put off until the election is over and the current board leadership is gone.
People say this isn’t about the villagers and the dissolvers.
People say this is what the board is supposed to do.
While you can believe the above statements to be true or false you also need to read between the lines and understand that this is too little too late for this board.
This is all about pandering to the electorate just in front of an election.
Does anybody really think that if the current board stays that all this change of attitude will continue? If so you should ask yourself why then it didn’t already happened last year or the year before.
53% already voted for change that didn’t happen.
Now 53% have a chance to vote for change that ‘Will’ happen.
I am putting up a sign in my yard that reads: “SAVE OUR SIGNS”!
Silver Lake Strong implies that Bernard Punsley is a “Dissolver”. Quite honestly, I think of him (her?) as a “Resolver”. While Mr.(Mrs?)Punsley can tend to pontificate once in awhile, for the most part, Punsley’s observations are spot on.
If nothing else, the elusive Bernard has the ability to generate conversation on an issue. One thing is for SURE…..if you are reading this right now, you are either GRINNING or GROANING!!!!
Knock it off Punsley You embarrassment….
Vote Bruce Nopenz for village president. Vote Pat Dunn, Eric Ericksen, and Doug Randolph for trustees. These 4 will make a change in our village government. A change for the betterment of our community.
PLEASE, Bernard, put that sign in your yard. 2800 people want to know who you are!!! Here’s you sign! (Or will we really have to ride around Salem to find you?)
@Karen Erb…..sign is up! You apparently are the ONLY person in the village that does not know who I am!
@Joey…….sorry pal, I won’t “Knuckle under’………
Wouldn’t a “smart move” be to elect candidates who have a track record of working to make Silver Lake a better place to live ? If so, please don’t vote for Nopenz, Erickson, Randolph, or Pat “no work” Dunn. The 4 of them together couldn’t spell S-I-L-V-E-R L-A-K-E or find the Village Hall if they had to.
The current village board would never have brought this issue up. Poor management practices on the part of the board has brought it to this. It is simple. The Police Department is falling apart and the Village Board has no other alternative but to contract with the Sherriff to get out of this mess they caused. They really do not want to do this.
You said, and I quote, “Poor management practices on the part of the board has brought it to this.” Wasn’t Mr. Albrecht President of Silver lake at one time? Isn’t Pat Dunn an active board member who has voted on many Police issues as well as he voted to purchased the new library building? Just curious as it would seem by reading everything these days the “dissolvers” seem to have forgotten this.
Hey set. Punsley im putting a sign in my yard that says remove the mask and reveal your past!!!