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Bert asks to extend CFD residency

Posted August 05, 2015 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

After the Chester Police Department's recent successful effort to extend its residency boundaries for full and part-time officers, Chester Fire Chief Marty Bert asked for generally the same thing for his department at Wednesday's meeting of the Public Safety Committee.

The measure could be discussed as early as the Aug. 17 meeting of the Chester City Council. Bert said he would like to extend his department's residency requirement to the boundaries of the fire district to help with recruitment and retention.

The current boundary is a five-mile radius of Chester City Hall.

"It's the same problem the CPD had, to an extent," said Committee Chairman Dan Geisen.

City Alderman Robert Platt asked Bert about expanding to the boundaries of the Chester school district, like the CPD did, and Bert said that district includes Ellis Grove and he doesn't want to infringe upon other fire departments.

"We want to stay within our fire district," he said.

Bert also said his fire vehicles are needing servicing and during his previous tenure as mayor, there were two city mechanics. In the years since, retirements and the city's oil and chipping program have caused those employees to be pulled into other departments.

"We need someone to be there for maintenance," Geisen said.

Bert said he has had discussions with Chester Mayor Tom Page about possibly hiring a part-time mechanic, but it is his opinion to hire a full-time mechanic.

"There's countless, endless maintenance that needs to be done," he said.

Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey's report contained mostly informational items, including an update on the CPD's sergeant testing.

Coffey said he met with the city's police commissioners on July 23 and gave a "chief's report" on each of the seven candidates for the two positions. Each officer got between 50 and 100 pages of material in five categories.

Oral interviews are expected to take place on Sept. 4.

"I speculate we could see a sergeant's list on or about Sept. 8," Coffey said.

Coffey said his department was successful in its pursuit of a Susteen Community Outreach Mobile Forensics Grant, which allows law enforcement agencies the ability to acquire their own mobile forensics software at steeply discounted prices using matching funds.

"It allows us to pull information from cell phones and use it as evidence," he said.

During a previous meeting of the Chester City Council, Coffey cited drug cases, sexual assaults, child pornography and burglary cases as examples of the types of cases in which the software could be used.

"Now, I think our cases will be more thorough because we'll have access to more evidence," Coffey said to the Public Safety Committee.

Coffey also reported that officers Steve Laramore and Joe Crain are finishing their probationary status with the department.

"I think they've learned a lot and are doing well," he said. "I have no issues with them moving out of probationary status."

Coffey also covered his department's plans for upcoming active shooter training for schools and businesses. After a successful drill at Memorial Hospital in 2014, he said he hopes to possibly have an annual scenario at the facility with four training sessions in two days.

"It will be similar to what we do with the schools, but a smaller timeframe," Coffey said.

In regard to ordinance enforcement, Coffey said he has shifted the bulk of the caseload to the other eight full-time officers on staff. Each received between five and eight cases and Coffey will serve in more of a supervisory role in that aspect.

"We have put out a number of notices in a week's time and by the end of this week, if we don't have compliance, we may be writing quite a few tickets," Coffey said.

Platt said he had received some complaints from his ward about people mowing grass into the streets.

Coffey said he would encourage residents to identify problem locations and report them to his department.

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