Council agrees to pay for TrekFest police

The Riverside City Council discussed how many police officers should be at TrekFest. The council debated the issue at its meeting Monday night. The council voted unanimously to pay for the officers for TrekFest, as long as the bill was not over $800. The vote was 4-0.

Councilor Betty Kaalberg was absent at the meeting because she was still in the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City. Kaalberg has been in a coma since Tuesday, April 26, and as of press time Tuesday was still in an intensive-care unit. The councilors showed their support for her by placing a yellow ribbon on her chair in the council chambers.

Terry Philips addressed the council on behalf of the Riverside Area Community Club (RACC). At its meeting on April 21, the club decided to ask the city to pay for the police protection during TrekFest. Over the past few years, there have been eight officers at TrekFest. The city and RACC have split the cost of those officers, 50-50. At RACC?s April meeting, Philips suggested that since TrekFest is down to the ?bare bones? this year, with few revenue generating opportunities, it could not pay for half the officers.

Philips told the council Monday that many years ago, the city paid for all the officers.

?When you guys generously started giving money to the community club three or four years ago, part of that was to pay for the deputies, if I understand the situation correctly,? said Philips. ?As you know, TrekFest will not be as large this year. I?m here to ask you to take care of the deputy expense, primarily for the parade and whatever else is required.?

The expense of the deputies has been about $800 in recent years.

Councilor Rodney Waldschmidt asked Philips and the other councilors how many officers are necessary at TrekFest.

Philips responded, ?I?d like to think it would be fewer this year because we don?t have as many events such as a meet-and-greet. However, we are going to have a square dance, and we know square dancers get out of hand.?

Philips said there will be a few bands but he doesn?t think there will be ?a lot of beer flowing.? Nevertheless, he said that the presence of men and women in uniform make a difference in how a crowd behaves.

Mayor Brian McDole asked Philips if the Sheriff?s Office required a certain number of officers for TrekFest. Philips said he was aware of no such requirement.

Waldschmidt said that six officers are ?way too many? during the day. Councilor Ralph Schnoebelen suggested that there be two officers in the downtown area and two in the park.

City Administrator Tina Thomas said the Iowa State Highway Patrol is responsible for policing the parade, because it goes down a state highway, Highway 22.

Schoebelen suggested that the council ask the Sheriff?s Office how many officers it thought were necessary.

The council also talked about the number of people on its Community Building Committee. The committee is in charge of finding a location for the community building planned for Riverside. The committee now has 11 members.

Councilor Todd Yahnke is on the committee. He said he doesn?t want to decide who is on the committee since he himself is a committee member. He also said that a committee of 11 people is too large.

?We don?t need that many people,? he said. ?It will be tough for everyone to meet.?

McDole said 11 is a good number.

?Maybe only six people can make the meeting,? said McDole. ?You don?t want to call a meeting and have two show up.?

Schnoebelen said the committee needs to talk about what kind of facility to build before it selects a location, because the kind of building would influence where the best place to build is.

?What do we need in our community building?? asked Schnoebelen. ?That?s what we need to know first. Then we can pick our site.?