BREITUNG- At Breitung Township’s special meeting on April 8, the board took care of police business, everything from opening the mail to posting an opening for a new chief of police. But the future of police service in Breitung is still undecided.
The board asked Clerk Dianna Sunsdahl to post an opening for the police chief position with an application deadline of May 2. The posting will be online on the police P.O.S.T. board and in two issues of the Duluth News Tribune and the Mesabi Tribune. Tomsich figured it would be about 90 days between advertising the position, candidate selection, and interviews before they could hire someone and that by then the police committee should have a recommendation to the board for the future of policing in Breitung.
Tomsich reported he has been working with the city of Tower to create a schedule for St. Louis County patrols in the Tower/Breitung area. The two communities are splitting the cost for random patrols equally in April and May. Tomsich said that the patrols with St. Louis County have been going well so far and that they have been covering the entire township, including the more remote areas. The board asked Sunsdahl to contact Tower and ask them to propose a schedule for June and have it back to Breitung in time for their regular April 22 board meeting.
The board opened three applications for the full-time officer position that had been posted earlier this year. Sunsdahl will send the applicants a letter explaining that the chief resigned and will ask if they would like to keep their applications open.
Breitung will ask Tower if they can keep possession of the police squad owned by Tower until a long-term solution is determined. In the Breitung/Tower police contract termination agreement, the two communities had agreed that Tower would have its property back within 60 days. The squad car is the only property that Tower owns and the equipment inside belongs to Breitung.
The board heard a report from the Tower/Breitung police committee that the committee has been meeting weekly and gathering data to determine needs, options, costs, and liabilities.
The township will seek legal guidance on what to do with evidence, incident reports, confiscated property and records held in the police department.