Mansfield City Council approves $327K in five grants for police dept.

MANSFIELD — The amount of grant money flowing into the Mansfield Police Department was not lost on Cheryl Meier on Tuesday evening.

Near the end of a lengthy meeting, the 2nd Ward councilwoman added up the numbers for everyone in terms of lawmakers voting to accept the financial awards.

“I would just like to make note that the police department has brought in $327,758.07 this evening in grants,” said Meier, chair of council’s safety committee.

Here is a breakdown of the grants and their purposes, as outlined by MPD Chief Jason Bammann.

— $137,052.48 from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services through the Drug Law Enforcement Fund to be used for METRICH Enforcement Unit operations.

“That has been the staple grant with METRICH that covers the operations pieces. We have (another) grant that covers drug investigations. DLEF covers operations … pays the bills essentially for all 10 (METRICH) counties,” Bammann said.

— $80,999.74 from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services to be used for overtime costs related to violent crime reduction.

“We bid for these grants. This year, we went for strictly overtime. Our bike patrol unit that we have up and coming … our drug task force … our community action team … so they can focus off duty of their normal hours out working in the community trying to reduce the violent crime that has plagued the community … that is on the downslide,” Bammann said.

— $54,232.76 from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services for a family violence liaison officer.

“The family violence reduction grant, or the domestic violence grant, traditionally that grant covered a full-time detective that just focused on domestic violence cases in the city. With the struggling manpower that we’ve had, we had to cut that back.

“That (grant) now covers half of the salary of a detective. The full-time officer at the time was placed back in patrol to kind of stop the bleeding when we were super short and that hasn’t been fully re-established. So this at least covers part of a detective’s salary while she focuses on other things,” Bammann said.

— $50,000 from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services for METRICH operations.

“This is a state grant that started several years back to help combat with the opioid issue. This particular year, we covered with this funding as part of salaries within METRICH and funded some of the software and equipment that we use at METRICH for them to do their day-to-day jobs,” Bammann said.

— $5,473.09 from the National Police Dog Foundation to pay for the emergency dental surgery of MPD K-9 Maxx.

In other action Tuesday, City Council:

— voted to accept the donation of two parcels of land totaling 110 acres being donated by the West Creek Conservancy. The land on Bowers Road in Springfield Township was a significant part of the former Camp Avery Hand, a scouting camp.

— voted to spend not more than $140,391 to get a Mansfield Fire Department rescue squad remounted. It’s a process that involves removing the patient transport or equipment compartment from an old, high-mileage truck chassis and placing it onto a brand-new or upgraded chassis. The work will be done by Burgess Ambulance Sales, Inc., of Loudonville.

— voted to honor former Mansfield Fire Dept. Lt. James Odson, who retired May 6 after 34 years of service. Odson was the first paramedic in the department’s history, joining the department in 1992.

— voted to accept a $1,999 donation from Richland County Job & Family Services for the city’s “Summer Fun in the Parks” program.

— voted to transfer $40,000 within the water fund to be used for capital improvements to buildings and grounds on the land being donated by the West Creek Conservancy, which will benefit the Clear Fork Reservoir.