TRR photo by David Hulse Supervisor Allan Schadt, left, and Councilman Peter Lilholt are pictured on November 12. (Click for larger image)

Police mutual aid tabled

By DAVID HULSE

ELDRED — Highland constables are not authorized to respond to assistance requests from police agencies outside the town, including constables in neighboring Lumberland… most of the time, Supervisor Allan Schadt told the town board on November 13.

However, while Schadt said he wouldn’t authorize those aid responses because the board has specifically prohibited them, he said the constables “will go to assist if they’re needed. They won’t sit and wait.”

Chief Constable Bob Maas said constables back up the emergency services, state police, sheriff’s department or Lumberland. “We just don’t go for no reason. If they call, we come,” he said.

Or at least they did go out of town in the past. “For the past eight months, we can’t back them up,” Maas added.

Councilman Peter Lilholt said his concern was that mutual aid doesn’t turn into routine patrol, “or riding just because they have slack time… It disturbs me to consider us spending half or a third of our patrol time in Lumberland,” he said.

The issue came up as the town board (minus two absent members, Ed Van Tuyl and Paul Zimmerman) considered a resolution to allow mutual aid responses outside the town. Schadt said he checked on insurance issues and found the town constables covered, “as long they’re in the continental U.S.”

Schadt said there should not be unanswered questions at this point, since he had distributed the resolution to the board two months ago.

Lilholt said he was concerned about the liability outside of Highland and about the cost of other agencies calling out off-duty constables within the town to avoid making long trips from other areas in response to calls.

No action was taken on the resolution at last Tuesday’s meeting.

In other business, the board: tabled action on a proposed supplemental health insurance plan participation; and tabled their backing of Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci’s effort to restore tax-exempt properties to the paying tax base.