La Cygne looks to hire full-time police officer, demolition of Wagon Wheel again under way

A worker cuts through the roof deck of the former Wagon Wheel restaurant as part of a renewed effort to demolish the building on Market Street that was gutted by fire last December. (Photo by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

LA CYGNE – Within days of the departure of former Police Chief Zachary Mathies, the La Cygne City Council voted to accept the resignation of Kurtis West from the city’s police department.

The council met in a 10-minute executive session with interim Police Chief John Mariño at its meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 19, before reopening the public session. Mariño, who said he has submitted an application for the chief’s post, said the city will advertise for another officer.

He said West had been hired by the Linn Valley Police Department.

The resignation leaves newly certified officer Joshua Higgins as the only other full-time officer and Achilles Ferrell, Tim Hsiao and Linn County deputy Brandon Lewis as part-time officers.

in his report to the council, Mariño said that he had talked to the contractor in charge of demolishing the Wagon Wheel restaurant. The city council has been pushing to have the demolition completed since the building was gutted by fire last December.

Demolition was under way last spring when the state issued a halt order because asbestos had been found, and it took months before the asbestos removal was completed and resumption of the demolition would fit into the contractor’s schedule.

Interim Police Chief John Mariño displays an updated patch that will soon be on all police officers uniforms. (Photo by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

Mariño said the contractor committed to completing the job by the end of August, and men were on site removing roof decking earlier this week.

Mayor Debra Wilson asked whether city codes were still being enforced following the resignation of Mathies, who had earlier this year taken on codes enforcement as well as his police chief duties.

Mariño said that he and Officer Higgins were working through a backlog of reports on uncut grass and weeds and were sending out letters to property owners.

Councilmember Jerome Mitzner asked whether the storm siren situation had been resolved.

According to Dan Nasalroad’s written report, the city radios can be used to activate the south siren but the north siren can only be activated by the county dispatch in Mound City. Chris Martin, the director of the county’s Information Technology Department has indicated he will reprogram the city’s fire and police radios to be able to activate both sirens.

Also in the report by Nasalroad, who was not at the meeting, the owner’s representative for 825 N. 7th St. Ct. was advised to appear at the Sept. 2 meeting to give the council an update on progress made on restoring the house that the city has condemned.

Nasalroad also wrote that a lightning strike to the city’s water tower blew out the power transformer and the main flow meter at the water plant. Starbuck Trucking is working to replace the damaged parts.