Quincy At its meeting on Monday, the Quincy City Council overwhelmingly approved the Fire and Police Commission’s decision to re-appoint Adam Yates as the head of the Quincy Police Department.
According to city bylaws, a reappointment must be made within four months of the conclusion of Yates’ first term, which was scheduled to expire in December. When that term ends in December, he will start a new three-year tenure.
According to Barry Cheyne, the chairman of the Fire and Police Commission and a veteran of the military and law enforcement with almost 50 years of experience, he has never worked with a greater police chief. Yates, he added, was able to ramp up a department that had been struggling with staffing issues because of COVID, the city’s budgetary difficulties, and former Mayor Mike Troup’s attempts to interfere with the choice of the police chief.
Eight recent academy graduates were undergoing field training in his department when (Yates) assumed the position of chief, and his department was still lacking 12 police personnel, according to Cheyne. The Quincy Police Department is now fully staffed after five new officers joined this morning.
Yates, a 26-year veteran of QPD, expressed excitement for the upcoming three years.
“I don’t think there’s a better job in the City of Quincy,” he remarked. Even if there have been difficulties, particularly in the last three years, I continue to believe in the work that police do. I’m honored to serve as their police chief, and we’ll keep up our hard work to advance the city.
The Housing Task Force’s co-chairs, Paul Havermale and Alderman Karol Ehmen (R-4th Ward), provided a summary of the group’s accomplishments to date and listed its future objectives, which include:
- Safe and habitable housing options
- Community Support for agencies serving marginaleed poulaitons
- Balanced housing expansion and community development
- Inclusive, intergenerational neighborhoods
- Preserving Quincy s identity while preparing for the future.
The next Housing Task Force meeting will take place at City Hall on August 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Aldermen approved the following other action:
- The third phase of improvements to the combined sewer overflow system, a $2.8 million project to reduce sewage runoff as part of the Whipple Creek sewer system near the Illinois Veterans Home. This is part of an overall $25 million project.
- Spending $231,000 to replace the netting over the Quincy Regional Airport s sewage lagoon, which is required by federal regulations for wildlife protection.
-
Spending $34,979.00 from G.A. Rich and Sons, Inc. of Deer Creek, IL for the installation of
the upper bearing on Wet Weather Screw Pump #3. - Spending $8,135.87 for the repair a pump at the Waste Water Treatment Plant and $69,978.28 to integrate a high-water pumping system in the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Both invoices are from Richards Electric.
- The low quote in the amount of $21,179.09 from Core and Maine of St. Louis, MO for the purchase of hydraulic tools.
-
An invoice in the amount of $9,264.40 from Brown Electric Company of Quincy, IL for the
replacement of the streetlight located on Broadway between 14th and 16th Streets. -
A quote from SHI International Corp. in the amount of $81,212.90 for the purchase
of forty-seven (47) Desktop PCs and laptops and the associated HP Care Packs. - Purchase of one mobile, and four portable radios from A & W Communications in an amount not to exceed $9,317.60.
