Dublin officials offer thanks to Pulaski Police Department

By MIKE WILLIAMS

The Patriot

Dublin Police Chief Dennis Lambert and Town Manager Tye Kirkner came to Tuesday’s meeting of Pulaski Town Council to offer thanks to Pulaski’s Police Chief and department.

“We wanted it known that, while a lot of agencies have this turf thing where they don’t want others to intrude upon, we are not like that in Dublin,” Lambert said.

“Recently we had our first murder in over 25 years and your Police Chief (Jill Niece) stepped up and called and asked ‘what do you need?’ We’re not too proud to say, ‘come help us.’

“We want to thank you for all the cooperation we received from Chief Niece and her staff,” Lambert added.

“We couldn’t have done it without them, and I hope everybody out there is looking at this and realize that with the things that are going on in this world, we need each other.

“We just so much appreciate the cooperation we got and I wanted you to know how much we appreciated it,” Lambert told council.

“It’s rare that we get opportunities to work together,” Kirkner added. “But this is the way we want to work in the future,” Kirkner said, offering any assets the Town of Dublin has “in any way, shape or form that we can assist and help you. We’re just excited that this is happening this way and it’s going to continue as far as we’re concerned.”

For her part, Niece said, “I didn’t do anything. I just put our best people with their best people.”

Three members of the Pulaski Police Department assisted Dublin in the murder investigation. They were Captain Mike Hudson, Lt. Sarah Grim and Detective Jamie Brown.

Also at Tuesday’s council meeting, Pulaski Police Department’s Community Resource Specialist Sonia Ramsey and Lt. John Saul gave a presentation to council on Project Lifesaver.

Pulaski Police Department has re-launched its Program Lifesaver program for the residents of the town.

Project Lifesaver is a free service offered to individuals and their caretakers that will help locate people – such as Alzheimer patients – should they wander off.

Project Lifesaver was founded in Chesapeake, Virginia in 1999 after several individuals saw the need for services to locate persons who wander off. The ideological concept for the tracking device was that a missing human could be tracked much like biologists track animals in the wild. In 1999, many patients of neurological disorders were not found in time when they wandered off and thus Project Lifesaver was born.

Project Lifesaver today is used by 1646 member agencies. An agency can track a wandering person by relying on a unique radio frequency that the patient will have on his/her person utilizing a transmitter. Each transmitter is attached to the patient via an arm band and allows the agency to use a special receiver to locate that arm band, its special frequency, and the patient wearing it. In most cases, the agency has the ability with Project Lifesaver equipment to locate a wandering person within 30 minutes of arriving to the last location the individual was observed.

For more information on how to sign up or to see how the program will work, please contact Ramsey at (540) 994-8676 or sramsey@pulaskitown.org.

Since the program is being offered free to needed individuals, the town is accepting donations towards the cost of equipment. Ramsey said earlier the police department has enough transmitters and arm bands for 7 people and only 2 receivers.

“We would like to purchase at least 1 more receiver and more transmitters to ensure that we are able to quickly locate any and all individuals who may need the service,” she said.

In other news, Town Manager Darlene Burcham introduced Olivia Hill to council as the new Clerk of Council.

Burcham also gave two economic development updates.

She told council that Bimmerworld had purchased the Memorial Square Shopping Center property and would be re-locating in the area once used by Walmart and Magic Mart. She noted the company would increase its staff once they’re re-located in Pulaski from Dublin and planned to rent out retail space in the shopping center to other businesses. The move should happen this year, she said.

Also she noted that Shah Development had now decided the townhomes they planned to build and rent at Fifth Street and Washington Avenue in Pulaski would now be sold individually rather than rented.

In a budget matter, Burcham told council this year’s capital improvement plan would be funded through ARPA (American Recovery Act) funds instead of local funds.

She said the items in the plan total some $1.5 million.

“It’s best to spend that money on one-time items instead of recurring costs,” Burcham noted, adding the town would receive a second influx of ARPA funds in late June.