It was report card time at the Rockingham City Council meeting Tuesday night as both the city police and fire department heads gave the city’s governing body a review of the past year.
Chief of Police Billy Kelly presented the council with a written report that included all the crime data for 2019. (See future issues of the Daily Journal for more details on this data).
But the report also highlighted the achievements of Kelly’s officers, which included career training and certifications. “Out of our 35 officers, 26 have advanced training skills and certifications. And that translates to officer longevity and quality.”
Some of the highlights from 2019 mentioned by the chief included that the department raided three clandestine Meth labs and were responsible for 217 drug charges being filed. Throughout the course of the year his officers made 487 felony arrests, and 491 misdemeanor arrests.
The police were called out a total of 19,381 times in 2019, up from year’s past. “Of those, over 7,000 were for non-criminal activities,” said Kelly, “just us helping out in the community.”
Programs Kelly was particularly proud of included the department’s National Night Out, which continues to grow in popularity and the Highway Safety programs originated in Rockingham.
Not to be outdone, Fire Chief Harold Isler also presented to the council his department’s highlights of the past year.
The fire fighting teams were called a total 457 times in 2019, and that included running on 16 structure fires. “We saw several really big fires this year,” explained Isler. “They involved large buildings with sophisticated equipment.”
Isler also touted his men and women for the training and certification programs they accomplished. “We now have 11 members in the EMT class,” he said. “And that’s a tough, six month program.”
And while the Rockingham department doesn’t plan on transporting patients anytime in the near future, the training will come in handy when, for example, they arrive at an accident scene before the ambulance gets there.
In other action, the council also got updated by City Manager Monty Crump on it’s installation of automated parking meters. Crump said that the city will be installing 632 meters this summer and plans to add 1,000 more next year. He estimates it will take four to five years before all the parking meters in the city have been upgraded.
The council also approved condemning and razing a dilapidated structure located at 118 Barrett Street in Rockingham. The structure is a hazard and will be demolished. Numerous attempts to reach the property owners proved futile, according to the staff, which is not uncommon when dealing with tear-down structures, said Crump, as often the owners are fearful of fines so they simply don’t respond.