BLAND — Bland Mayor Pro Tem Merrilee Spurgeon fielded questions regarding the city’s recent lack of patrol cars at the Aug. 14 board meeting and reassured citizens that they would hopefully have more police presence soon.

Michael Anderson, a citizen who has been vocal at past city meetings about keeping an active police presence in Bland, asked Spurgeon if she can answer his questions during the visitors and presentations portion of the meeting.

“Do we have a car that’s on the road that you drive when you are here,” Anderson asked Interim Police Chief Darrell Chrisenberry and Spurgeon. “I heard it was involved in an accident and heard someone say we had a different car.”

Spurgeon said the city has had its police car for quite a while.

“We have always had the same car,” she said. “It hasn’t been out lately, mainly because we haven’t had a cop.”

The city’s Ford Escape which was previously used as a police vehicle was given to the nuisance violations officer. Spurgeon said that the car is at the city yard waiting for repair.

“We haven’t had any police?” Anderson asked.

Former Police Chief Dwayne Goodridge was injured in an on-duty accident in June.

“Dwayne has been done since June because he had an accident,” Spurgeon said. “He was starting inn at 32 hours a week before that. Since then, Darrell works when he can. We hired another guy, but he got hurt in Linn on his own time and he will be back once he heals. We are trying to hire two others who offered to work for us part-time, but we will have to work around their other schedules.”

Anderson referred to a board decision in the spring that demoted Goodridge from 32 hours a week to 20 hours a week and took away his health insurance benefits. Anderson spoke against the decision.

“We talked about this previously and you said we would not be without police,” Anderson said.

Spurgeon argued that Goodridge was not fired. She said the board reinstated the former chief’s hours and benefits before his June accident. However, he has not returned to the city since his accident.

“They abandoned us,” Spurgeon said. “Dwayne has not showned up. He has abandoned his post.”

Chrisenberry previously worked for Goodridge and has tried to help in his absence, but was recently promoted at his full-time job.

Anderson said the board should have expected that Goodridge would leave the city.

“I did express my concern,” Anderson countered. “It is a process that should have been in place before you started firing shots at everyone. The way the situation unfolded shouldn’t have happened.”

Spurgeon said Goodridge has been on workman’s comp since his on-duty accident. The city attorney has allegedly sent him a letter notifying him that he was supposed to check in with the Bland City Hall by a date that has already passed. Since Goodridge never checked back into his job, Spurgeon said the board was advised that he has abandoned his post. He is therefore no longer employed by the city.

“That is what happens at every job you get when you aren’t working your time,” Spurgeon said. “How could we have known someone was going to walk away?”

“The way the situation unfolded shouldn’t have happened,” Anderson argued. “When you cut people’s hours and cut their benefits, there is a pretty good chance they aren’t going to stick around.”

Spurgeon said she can’t libel herself, but there is information she can’t share with the public.

“Darrell has always been here,” she said. “He works a lot of hours. We have never been truly, totally without any kind of police force.”

Chrisenberry said before the incidents with Goodridge and their other part-time officer, they had everyone working well and on a good rotation.

“Unfortunately, Murphy jumped in and took two or three of us out in a day and a half. That whipped two-thirds of us in a day-and-a-half,” Chrisenberry said. “I am working with the task force and working with Gasconade. If we can get the other two gentlemen hired, Alex comes back, and me, we have a pretty good conjunction with Gasconade. This is a problem across the board and in the nation with law enforcement in general.”

Chrisenberry said many cities are paying decent wages for police officers, causing fewer officers to want to take on a second part-time job. He added several officers in the area went to Unionn where they are paying $60,000 a year for a city cop.

“I am working on getting us more coverage in here,” Chrisenberry said. “But there are times I roll through this town unmarked. I know there are issues, and some of this stuff is timing.”

Anderson said he was sorry if he misunderstood the situation.

“Circumstances are out of your control,” he conceded. “But it was just so close to the timing of the other stuff.”

Spurgeon suggested Anderson contact the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department with issues until they can get the PD straightened out. Andersons said the sheriff’s department is too far away to be of any use. Since the call wouldn’t be a priority, they would likely get rerouted before they got there.

“Manning at the county is a little better than it was before,” Chrisenberry said. “Regardless of if you think they could get here in time for your issue, always call and report suspicious activity. I can’t say why they didn’t show up before, but if a priority call comes in when they are en route, they get rerouted. If you have the times and dates of the calls, I can speak with the sheriff. Even if they don’t make it here, I would rather you called and get it on record.”

Chrisenberry said many times in detective work, someone will report a suspicious character and later they find out about a nearby break-in, robbery, or other incident. Many times the suspicious character call ties the two incidents together.

“I tell folks as a road deputy, 911 and the sheriff is there for you,” Chrisenberry said. “You pay our salaries. I am your physical tax return when you call us.”

Alderman John Hollandsworth suggested looking into a community watch.

“We are working on getting a stronger police force,” Spurgeon said. “When we get to the treasury report, you will understand why (there is no one). There is no money or we would have a heavy presence. “

Chrisenberry asked the board to consider hiring two part-time officers to fill their coverage gaps.

“That will put us at four part-time people,” he said.

“We will discuss that in closed session,” Spurgeon said.

Later in the meeting, the board voted 3-0 to discontinue paying insurance on Goodridge. As his insurance has already been paid through August, the city will cancel it on the first of September.