SPRINGDALE -- The Police Department is close to receiving cameras for new police cars.
The City Council Committee recommended the City Council approve amending the Police Department budget to allow Police Chief Mike Peters to use $77,060 in drug seizure money to buy camera systems for 10 police vehicles to be delivered within the next two weeks.
"For the past several years we have had cameras in all vehicles assigned to patrol officers, and there is concern in deploying these vehicles without cameras," Peters said in a letter to Mayor Doug Sprouse.
The cameras will be purchased from WatchGuard if the council approves buying the cameras.
The cameras weren't originally planned because they were cut from the Police Department's budget in December, Peters said.
The cameras, which are dash mounted, are equipped in the department's 76 patrol cars and are essential to effective police work, Peters said.
"They record any interaction with the public and audio and video," Peters said. "They record speed and GPS location. They are really helpful in resolving citizen complaints."
In other business, the committee tabled a motion to recommend using $86,000 from the Bluff Cemetery budget to buy three columbariums that combined will offer 144 niches for ashes to be buried in the cemetery.
Burial space is running out at the cemetery, with only about seven to 10 burial plots available, said Melissa Reeves, public affairs director for the city.
"Once we sell those plots, there will still be families who desire to bury their loved ones at Bluff Cemetery," Reeves said. "This will allow us to have more space to accommodate those requests."
Each columbarium has 48 niches, Reeves said.
"If we install columbariums, they will not take the place of any current plots," Reeves said.
Alderman Colby Fulfer, who owns Westfield Chapel Funeral Home & Cremation Service, questioned whether columbariums would be a good investment.
"I'd say less than 5 percent of people want to put their loved one's ashes in these walls," Fulfer said. "A lot of people like to scatter ashes."
Reeves said she doesn't know exactly how many people are buried in Bluff Cemetery because some plots date to the 1800s.
The city will consider whether to buy more land to create more burial spaces at the cemetery, Reeves said.
"We've had those conversations in the past but no decisions have been made at this time," Reeves said. "We would have to look into the options of purchasing additional land."
NW News on 04/04/2017