Fulton police chief says he’s planning on leaving department

FULTON – In a surprise move during the Nov. 13 Fulton City Council meeting, Police Chief Nick Neblung announced that he is in interview talks with another agency.

Neblung cited four years of stressed duties, a lack of personnel at the agency and a concern for his health as reasons for leaving.

Sgt. Dwayne Hamilton was recommended as interim police chief if Neblung leaves.

Neblung made a request to the council to consider increasing part-time salary from $25 an hour to $30 an hour for officers to match the salary of Morrison.

“I hope the council learns more one on one what are the problems facing this community,” Neblung said.

Later in the meeting, a request was made to approve overtime. Neblung holds a salary position, but in the past five weeks, he has worked 89 hours overtime in addition to his regular 45 hours a week because of a lack of personnel at the police department.

The council was asked to consider reimbursing Neblung for his time and work above and beyond the call of duty.

In other action:

• The committee tasked with naming the Nutcracker after a contest by local schoolchildren has narrowed the list to three names. The Nutcracker visited the elementary school and public library, and 132 entries were submitted to the council. The vote for the name was put in the hands of the City Council. The child who submitted the winning name and his or her family will get the opportunity to light the Christmas tree during the Christmas Walk.

• Jessica Taylor of Simple Grants gave a presentation about opportunities for grants for the city of Fulton. Simple Grants hopes to submit applications for grants for Fulton as part of its work with the City Council.

• Gurlabh Singh brought a concern to the City Council after receiving an email saying he was selling his business, which was an inaccurate statement that he wished to clarify.

• An attendee raised concerns about construction on pavement near her house. Her neighbors had construction work done on their blacktops. She claimed the neighbors did not pay for the replacement of the blacktop, and her house was not covered by the construction. According to the city, construction work was predetermined by an engineer. Any additional construction came down to the contractors. This was business between the contractors and the property owners, Public Works Director Eric Sikkema said.

The council also:

• discussed the possibility of a tourism coordinator position and a potential partnership/working relationship with Iowa’s tourism coordinator.

• discussed abating the city’s bonds. Abating the bonds means the city has certain funds to abate bonds that don’t come from taxpayers. “When we bond out, we have certain funds committed to those payments,” city employee Tammy Garibay said.

• discussed properly surveying the marina property before future decisions can be made about the land.