Mt. Vernon Register-News

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March 9, 2010

Bonnie dissolves police force

tesa.culli@register-news.com

BONNIE — The Bonnie Police Department was dissolved last night due to a lack of funds by the village.

“Every year we allocate $25,000 for the police department,” Mayor David Hubbard explained. “We’ve already spent $14,000 this year and we don’t have it. It’s not that we wanted to do it, we had to do it. We’re not broke, we just don’t have $25,000 every year to spend on a police department.”

The village police department was started in September 2004, with Rodney Sweetin as the chief. Since that time, Sweetin stepped down to assistant chief to allow Curtis Anselment to become chief for a period of time, and at the time of the dissolution on Monday, Sweetin was again serving as chief of the department.

“I understand the need for the action,” Sweetin said. “I understand they don’t have the money to do it.”

Sweetin said the four part-time officers on the department are no longer employed at this time, and he will serve for the next 30 days to eliminate equipment. All those officers who have served on the Bonnie Police Department are also employed by other law enforcement agencies in the area such as the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Mt. Vernon Police Department, where Sweetin is employed as a detective.

Hubbard said although the village will not have its own police department, residents will still have law enforcement coverage.

“The county deputies will still be here, and Ina is just down the road,” Hubbard said. “We’ll see if they can help us or not. If there is someone in Ina on duty, they get dispatched too, so we’re not without coverage.”

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