Twin Lakes said good-bye and job well done to retiring police Chief Dale Racer and swore in his replacement, Adam Grosz at Monday night’s Village Board Committee of the Whole meeting.
Dale Racer had served as chief of the Twin Lakes Police Department for nine years. Trustee Tom Connolly, sitting in for village President Howard Skinner who was absent, read the following proclamation in Racer’s honor. Racer also made some comments following the reading:
The public is invited to an open house in Racer’s honor to be held on Tuesday, July 7 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Village Hall, 108 E Main St.
Grosz was then sworn in by village administrator Jennifer Frederick:
There also was some other police department related business on Monday’s agenda. New full-time officer Richard Ecklund was introduced to the Village Board and sworn in by Frederick:
And the board directed Grosz to prepare a purchase of a new squad car. The village’s 2012 Impala squad car recently had a severe engine problem develop, rendering the vehicle unusable. Racer said he and Skinner, an auto mechanic, determined that there was no feasible way to repair the vehicle and that it should be replaced instead. The car has about 100,000 miles on it and was due to be replaced next year as part of a regular rotation.
The Village Board decided to replace the broken vehicle this year despite having replaced two other vehicles this year for the police department as anticipated replacements. The new squad is expected to cost about $19,800, though there may be some additional cost to replace equipment that cannot be transferred from the broken vehicle.
While Frederick said she felt the village should proceed with replacing another police vehicle next year as planned, Trustee Barbara Andres questioned the need considering this replacement was going through now. Connolly suggested that was a decision for budget time.
