Tuesday, January 30, 2007

THERE'S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN, BUT THE PROBLEMS REMAIN THE SAME

With John Gronki now out as Snow Hill's police chief, Sheriff Chuck Martin has once again lept into the breach to provide coverage and oversight. According to one source, an administrative-level officer from Martin's staff will assume the role as interim chief for a 90-day period, during which the town hopes to hire a new chief. Reportedly, the interim guy is a retired Ocean City cop who works for the sheriff on a part-time basis.... Gene Somebody-or-Other. So now we have a stopgap, but we don't have a resolution to the problem that confronted town officials two years ago when they hired Gronki.That is, if they couldn't afford to hire a police chief with knowledge and experience last time, and the town's economic situtation has not changed appreciably since then, how are they going to afford it now? Of course, the short answer is that they aren't, at least not without a hefty tax increase. Yikes.
... But another option may be easier for town residents to take than a big tax bite, would be to just disolve the town's police force and turn law enforcement duties over to the Sheriff until such time as the town can afford to reconstitute it's own agency.

2 comments:

truthiness said...

Your source isn't very good if he didn't tell you the guys last name.
Deputy Gene Parker is a well respected retired Captain from Ocean City. The folks of Snow Hill are lucky to have him, even if it's only for a short time.

RAT said...

they did... I forgot it....