Athens looking for full-time officer
By Casey Krautkramer
Chairmen of two Village of Athens committees said at Monday’s regular board meeting that there is a great need for the village to hire another full-time police officer.
Athens Police Chief Aaron Stencil is currently the only full-time police officer in the department. Board members said he is overworking himself because his part-time police officers have full-time jobs outside the department and are not able to fill several open shifts each month.
Cody Socha, chairman of the finance and personnel committee, along with Andy Thurs, chairman of the fire and police committee, both agreed that something needs to be done to give chief Stencil more help patrolling the village. To discuss the issue further, Socha and chief Stencil have scheduled a finance and personnel meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, in the board room inside the new village municipal building.
Chief Stencil said, in the past, graduates with associate’s degrees in criminal justicelaw enforcement from Northcentral Technical College in Wausau were eager to work part-time police officer jobs in the area to gain valuable experience. They did this before getting a full-time police officer job because there were so many candidates for those positions. Stencil said there are less law enforcement personnel these days, so NTC graduates can immediately get hired as full-time police officers right out of college.
Other business
■ The board voted 6-1 to pay $15,500 to MTS (Marathon Technical Services) in Wausau for engineering work on the Maple Street project in 2025. Board members Randy Decker, Tyler Socha, Taran Brodziski, Christopher Guden, Socha and Thurs voted in favor of the engineering contract with MTS, while Christopher Perkins voted against it.
■ Board members voted unanimously to change the ATV/UTV speed limit on village streets from 15 miles per hour to whatever the posted speed limit is for motor vehicles. The board also unanimously voted to revise the ATV/UTV trail map to include Well Street, which goes to Erbach Park.
■ The board approved the first pay request from Switlick & Sons of Athens for $154,045 for the Elm/Schlegel streets project. Board members also approved a final resolution for special assessments to charge residents living on Elm/Schlegel streets 50 percent of the cost for new curb and gutter along their property.
■ Board members voted unanimously to pay Jason Smola to crush the village’s asphalt and concrete pile for $4 a ton.
■ The board voted unanimously to pay $500 to North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning in Wausau to digitize the village’s zoning map. Village clerk Lisa Czech said it’ll be easier for land appraisers to find the village’s zoning map online instead of calling her to look at a large physical map in the municipal center.
■ Trick-or-treating in the village will be from 3-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27.
