MOUNT VERNON — City officials are kicking around the idea of having a police officer patrol the downtown area from the seat of a bicycle.
Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis said he spoke this week with Mount Vernon Police Chief Mike Merillees about reinstituting the practice of having a single officer complete an entire eight-hour shift from a bike.
“I liked the bike patrol,” he said. “It’s not so much to reduce the money spent on gas, it’s more because it was so effective in the downtown area. Reports I received from the former police chief were all positive.”
Mavis said the bike patrolman not only helped cut down on criminal activity in the downtown area, he was able to travel to different extremities of the city and helped to curtail a vandalism problem in the city’s north end. He added that a bike patrol will always require assistance from a cruiser; to make an arrest, for instance.
“Not only did I like the bicycle patrol method, it saved patrol cars from having to go down alleys and parking lots,” Mavis said. “Also, a police officer on a bicycle is much less noticeable than an officer in a cruiser.”
Mavis said he was disappointed when the decision was made about four years ago to have the patrolman go back to the cruiser. The equipment is still in storage. The mayor said the bike officer would be particularly effective in helping police upcoming events such as the expanded Fourth of July fireworks display and the Dan Emmett festival.
Asked why there was only one bike officer, Mavis said it has to due with the physical conditioning involved in doing an entire shift on a bike. The former bike officer, still a member of the police force, was a serious bicycle rider and physically fit enough to do the entire eight-hour shift on a bike.
In other city business, the mayor said:
•The low bidder for the city’s 2008 resurfacing project was Small’s Asphalt Paving of Gambier. The company’s bid was $394,490, compared to Kokosing Construction’s bid of $424,981. Small’s should be awarded the contract next week. Streets to be repaved are Norton Street, from Chestnut Street to its southern dead end; Snowden Avenue; West Vine Street, from Norton Street to Fountain Street; Compromise Street; Teryl Drive; Quarry Street; Third Avenue; Chester Street, from Franklin Street to its southern dead end; Ames Street, from Newark Road to South Main Street; Monroe Street; Washington Street; Oak Street Extension; Linden Street; Sycamore Street; Lewis Street; North Rogers Street, from Pleasant Street to Denison Street; Parrott Street; Kenyon Street; Oberlin Street; Lamartine Street, from North Center Street to Sychar Road; Hewitt Drive and Pennsylvania Avenue (the east block).
•The next chance for city residents to get rid of unwanted junk and trash is is Saturday, June 7, from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Items should be taken to Allied Waste/BFI Waste Systems at 107 Tilden Avenue;the city will pay half the disposal cost. No hazardous waste, roofing materials or concrete will be accepted. Only city residents can participate; identification is required.
•The city’s water park on Sychar Road opens today. It will be open from noon to 7:45 every day and will stay open through Labor Day weekend.
•The state division of wildlife plans to do an assessment of the fish population in the three lakes at Foundation Park on June 10. The assessment will help city and wildlife officials form a strategy for stocking the lakes in the future.
•The Farm Market will kick off on Saturday, June 7, on Public Square from 9 a.m. to noon.
