Chouteau trustees approved an emergency management agreement with the county, purchasing a new K-9 container, approved dispatch and jail use agreements with the county during the monthly meeting last week.

The board discussed approving an emergency management contract with the county. Mayor Jerry Floyd said the county has a good emergency management system and will provide Chouteau with a person to storm watch and set off sirens in inclement weather.

Floyd said the cost of the emergency management contract would be $4,000, which is $1,500 less than the town had scheduled in the new budget.

Trustee David Morgan asked Fire Chief Ted Key his opinion on using county emergency management as opposed to the town having its own emergency management director. Key said the fire department works with Mayes County Emergency Management in the county. He said county emergency management has secured thousands of dollars in grants for the county and other fire departments throughout the county.

The board approved purchasing a K-9 container for a patrol car from Elite K9 for $1,520 out of the police drug fund. The container will have a fan to circulate air in the vehicle.

The board approved a dispatching agreement with the county for $750 per month and a jail use agreement with the county for $20 per day per inmate.

The board approved depositing revenue received from the sale of surplus vehicles into the police drug and police training and equipment fund. The amount is $4,298.50. Police Chief Gary Shrum recommended $1,500 be put into the drug fund and the remainder in the training and equipment fund.

The Chouteau Police Department issued 243 citations, wrote 38 warnings and gave 98 verbal warnings in May. Total number of contacts made was 379. The department took 138 police calls, made five drug arrests and jailed 33 people. Reserve officers worked 116 hours. The department responded to six animal calls, picking up three. Cases worked in May included one domestic dispute, one vandalism, three burglaries, one theft from an automobile, one assault and battery, one violation of a court order, one runaway juvenile, one defrauding an innkeeper, one child abuse, one breaking and entering, one threat, one rape and one domestic assault and battery. Arrests were made for three driving under the influence (DUI), four public intoxication, two juvenile possession of tobacco, three possession of marijuana, two felony warrants, one emergency detention order, one DUI and possession of marijuana, one possession of marijuana, one juvenile detention order, one rape and two domestic assault and battery.

Key asked the board to table ordinance 08-2 to give the town attorney and Key time to work out any kinks. Currently, the ordinance only addresses billing fire runs and he’d like to see the ordinance address all runs.

The ordinance would allow the town to bill for out of the ordinary runs, like when the hazmat team has to clean up chemicals from a meth lab.

Although Key said the goal isn’t to bill people for all runs, with an ordinance, the town may be able to recoup some money from responses outside the city limits and major incident inside the city limits like technical rescue and hazardous materials.

Key also asked the board to consider depositing revenue from fire run billings into the special fire fund instead of the town general fund. Key explained he’d like to duplicate what the police department does with their revenue from tickets. He said revenue from tickets goes into the police training and equipment fund and he’d like to see revenue from fire runs go into the special fire fund.

Key said the change would allow the town to better track revenue from billed fire runs. He said the fire department often uses equipment and supplies when responding on calls and has to replace it. With the money from fire runs going into the special fire fund, the council would be better able to track where the money came from and why it is being spent on supplies and equipment.

Floyd said with the budget process almost completed, he didn’t want to consider making the change until after the special meeting for the budget on June 26.

In May, the fire department responded to 35 first responder calls and 11 fire calls, including one structure fire, five motor vehicle accidents, one hazmat call and four smoke investigation calls.