WILLMAR -- The weekend of Oct. 28-29 was a busy one for the Willmar Police Department, and members of the Willmar City Council had questions about how the department handled staffing.
Police officers on duty had to make some judgment calls on responding to calls, Police Chief Dave Wyffels said at Monday's City Council meeting.
Over the weekend, the police responded to numerous calls for service, including a report of shots fired at an occupied van as it traveled through the Regency West neighborhood.
Other calls that weekend included a sexual assault report, numerous fights, a drunken driver crashing his car into a yard and a burglary where the homeowner surprised the burglar in the act of stealing a laptop.
Council members said they had questions about a short delay in responding to the burglary.
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"We had a really heavy call load," Sgt. Mike Anderson told the council.
When the burglary call came in, there were no city units or Kandiyohi County units available to respond, Anderson said.
"We had to put off one call," he said.
"Sergeant Anderson made the appropriate call," Wyffels said, because the call to Regency West involved firearms, and there was a greater potential threat to people in the area. In the case of the burglary, the suspect had already run off, and the direct threat to the homeowner was gone.
Wyffels said there was a delay of about five minutes before a squad responded to the burglary call, he said. "We did direct attention to that call as soon as we were able."
Mayor Frank Yanish, who was on a ride-along with the police that weekend, thanked Anderson for the time he spent with him.
In other business, the council adopted a resolution setting wastewater treatment rates for the Eagle Lake Sanitary Sewer System. The rates were set at $40.73 for 2011 and $48.76 for 2012.
Council members approved a resolution in support of an application to the Small Cities Development Grant program. The Housing and Redevelopment Authority is preparing to submit a pre-application for an $800,000 grant to help make improvements to qualified homes and businesses in Willmar and Raymond.
