Commissioners present badge, take care of business
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POLSON — Polson Police K-9 Officer Brody received his badge at the Jan. 8 Polson City Commissioners meeting. Officer Juan Maso works with Brody, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever.
Brody has the ability to search vehicles, bags, lockers, classrooms, large rooms, items at the United States Post Office and United Parcel Service — since people tend to mail drugs — Maso said. Brody can also track people who are lost or missing, victims, persons of interest in a crime and help recover critical items.
Brody’s training regime begins each day with a half-mile run, followed by motivational, narcotics, agility, tracking and obedience training.
“He likes to play a lot,” Maso said, smiling at the big yellow dog.
Plus, Brody is a friendly guy and interacts well with the community, such as the kids at Linderman Elementary School where Maso and Brody put on a program Jan. 8.
During city manager comments, Polson City Manager Mark Shrives thanked the Polson City Street Department for bringing in additional staff and hauling 300 loads of snow during the night of Jan. 5, after a storm front dropped about a foot of snow on the town. The street department also had help from the Water and Sewer Department, the Parks Department, police officers and even the Golf Department.
In other business, commissioners approved Polson City Judge A. Doug Olson’s four-year contract.
They also appointed Johna Morrison and Karen Sargeant to the board of adjustments; Dennis DeVries and Samuel Jacobsen to the City/County Planning Board; and Jules Clavedetscher to the Polson Redevelopment Agency.
The council tabled a resolution establishing a service plan for the city. Commissioner John Campbell had problems with agreements with people with sewer service outside city limits.
“Why all these agreements and all these wordings?” Campbell asked. “(The city) doesn’t provide sewer service unless you annex.”
Shrives said he would meet with Gebhardt and discuss the issues and bring it back to either the next meeting or the one after.
Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding between the City of Polson and Paul and Shirley Gochis for the purchase of property.
Shrives said the city paid $1,500 earnest money to the Gochis, who have signed a buy/sell agreement. The buy/sell is for land on which the city plans to drill a test well before they pay for the land. If the well is not successful for the city’s purposes, then the sale is off.
“If the sale moves forward and we purchase it, then we go through the city/county planning process,” Shrives explained.
One last item of business was approving an extension of the Ridgewater Phase 4 until June 1. Shrives noted that when Polson City Engineer Shari Johnson did an inspection there were areas not meeting city standards. Developers were informed as much through a letter. Shrives said he’d prefer the developers do the work instead of the city. Phase 5 work on Ridgewater is due to be completed at the same time.
The next Polson City Commission meeting will be held Jan. 21 since Jan. 19 is the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Meeting time will be 7 p.m. in council chambers at Polson City Hall.
