Ronan Police must ‘do more with less’
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Editor,
I am writing today to request patience and understanding from the people. This will be another tough year for public safety budgets. We heard of some of the issues in Polson recently and we are no different. This year the Ronan Police Department again has to do more with less. We were hit with another increase in dispatch fees as well as an increase for insurance, not to mention that prices for supplies seem to go up monthly. Now add to this the fact that the city is getting less revenue because not everyone can afford to pay their taxes and we have a problem.
This has resulted in the complete cutting of our records clerk position, cutting half of our capitol outlay for vehicles and cutting of 200 hours from our part-time budget which covers vacations, training and busy times, all of which comes after a big reduction last year as well. This ultimately means less people to handle what seems like an ever increasing work load. Therefore, if you are a victim or are in need of our services, I would ask for extra patience from you. We will not be ignoring you, but it is going to get tougher to juggle things as it will be for most or our area law enforcement.
Thank you for your understanding,
Art Walgren
Ronan Police Assistant Chief
