Law Board hears briefings on firing range, CARES funding

The Riley County Police Department has not yet submitted its request for COVID-19 assistance through the federal CARES Act.

At Monday’s brief meeting of the Riley County Law Board, RCPD Director Dennis Butler said his agency stands to receive about $63,000 for expenses brought on by the pandemic. He says they are working at determining how to best appropriate that before departments must submit proposals by July 27.

Another source of funding may come from the police department’s annual Justice Assistance (or JAG) Grant, which totals approximately $19,000. Butler says some of that could potentially go to equipment upgrades for staff, but says they will be careful with how they identify needs.

Law Board members also received a brief update regarding construction of the new RCPD firing range, located south of Manhattan. Lt. Brad Jager says the former range was vacated at the end of June and construction began last week at the new range.

Jager says they should expect quite a few bids to be solicited for that project.

As for the old range, Riley County recently hired a third party to conduct an assessment for cleanup costs. Results of that are pending and will be shared at a future Riley County Commission meeting.

The only other items of discussion included community interest items. The Law Board met for a total of 17 minutes before breaking into two executive sessions for non-elected personnel matters with no action taken.

Director Butler says the Fair and Impartial Policing Committee working group met earlier this month for the first time in a while to discuss diversity and inclusion within the department.

The topic was presented to the Law Board Monday after last month’s request from Manhattan City Commissioner and current Law Board member Linda Morse, to be included as a future agenda topic. Butler says prior to the pandemic, RCPD had planned on the committee meeting in March, and finally got everyone together this month.

Community members also sit on the committee. Butler also updated the Law Board on the status of the Community Advisory Board (CAB). Recently it was discussed that those meetings would be taken to different communities at different times to encourage more participation.

The community advisory board advises RCPD on community concerns and relays information about RCPD to the public. To learn more, visit rcpdcab.org.