City of Miller regains law enforcement certification; smoke testing set

The City of Miller has regained its Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) certification. Mayor Stacy Daniels announced the city had regained its certification during the Miller Board of Aldermen meeting during her report on Thursday, Nov. 8.
Daniels later stated that the city regained its certification due to the police department’s new accounting inventory system.
“I contacted Tim Kempker and asked him what we needed to do to be reinstated into the program,” she said. “We filled out an application, identified our newly inventory accounting system, and we were admitted back into the program.”
As a result of regaining LESO certification, the Miller Police Department (MPD) will again be able to apply for equipment that is considered in excess of the needs of the Department of Defense. The MPD has already been given two M-16 semi-automatic assault rifles through the program.
Daniels also announced that she was adopting the standard operation procedures of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) to the Miller Police Department.
“We are going through their SOP’s and changing the wording from LCSO to Miller PD, with changes or taking out all together from a County perspective to be that of a municipality,” she stated in a later communication.
Adopting the LCSO’s procedures is a lengthy task, one that Daniels said she was unsure of when it would be complete.
“I work on them when time permits,” she said. “They are quite extensive, (and) therefore time consuming.”
During the meeting, the board voted to agree to allow TREKK, an engineering firm, conduct smoke testing on the city’s sewer system, which will take place near the end of the month. TREKK is in charge of overseeing the city’s water/sewer upgrade project. Currently, they are working to secure grants to fund the project.
In other business, the board voted to purchase a Stalker PATROL radar for the Miller Police Department at a cost of $1,400. The board also voted to end the monthly stipend paid to city employees to cover the health insurance of dependents; currently, the city pays $200 per month per dependent to city employees to cover their health insurance, $600 per month total. The stipend will be phased out over the course of a year, with the city reducing the amount by $50 every three months, so that city employees can allow for the end of the stipend.