Two Dixon sergeants sworn in at City Council meeting Monday

DIXON — Two Dixon patrol officers were sworn in as sergeants during the Dixon City Council’s regular meeting on Monday, May 20.

Sgt. Christopher Scott was promoted on March 4 after seven years of service with the Dixon Police Department and 15 years of service overall. At the Dixon Police Department, he has served as patrol officer, field training officer, school resource officer, designated officer in charge, bike officer, detective, tactical response team member, hostage negotiator and instructor.

Sgt. Ryan West was promoted on May 18 after eight years of service with the Dixon Police Department. At the Dixon Police Department, he has served as patrol officer, designated officer in charge, field training officer, tactical response team member and bike officer.

West also was involved with the creation of the Dixon Police Department’s podcast and helps oversee the department’s social media pages.

“For us to be able to promote, individuals had to retire so I just wanted to recognize and thank them for their service as well,” Chief Steven C. Howell Jr. said at the meeting.

Sgt. Matt Coppotelli retired after 27 years of service with the Dixon Police Department and assumed the position of police chief at Polo’s police department on Jan. 2, 2024.

Sgt. Jeff Ragan retired on May 17 after 22 years of service with the Dixon Police Department. He now serves as the regional director of the Northwest Illinois Criminal Justice Commission organizing all the training for law enforcement in Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Carroll, Ogle, Whiteside and Lee counties, Howell said.

“[It is] just a good day with first responders having a couple of sergeants sworn in today,” Mayor Glen Hughes said during the council’s reports.

The police department remained as a topic of conversation as the council moved into ordinances and unanimously approved the sale of retired squad cars.

Deputy Chief Matt Richards presented the department’s case to the council, explaining that they’d like to sell eight vehicles through an internet auction and donate one vehicle, a 2007 Dodge Charger, to the Sauk Valley Community College Police Academy.

Most recently, the 2007 Dodge Charger was being used by the department as a demonstration car for emergency driving. “[That car] still runs pretty well so it’ll be a good car for the police academy to use out there,” Richards said at the meeting.

Howell then presented the department’s request to purchase three police vehicles: a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado at $50,616 to be used on patrol; a 2023 Dodge Durango at $42,327 to be used in the K9 division; and a 2024 GMC Terrain at $38,814 to replace the vehicle donated to the police academy.

The purchase of the three vehicles came in at $12,243 under budget. The council unanimously approved the department’s purchase.

Once all sales are final, the department will have a fully updated fleet of police vehicles, Howell said.

In other business Monday, the council:

• authorized the sale of the cemetery’s 1987 Case 580E backhoe for $8,900 to Miller-Bradford & Risberg; approved the purchase of a 2024 Case 590SN backhoe from Miller-Bradford & Riseberg for $144,092; and approved the purchases of a 2024 Case SR270B skid loader, cold planer, power tilt tach attachment and equipment trailer for $134,442.44.
• amended line items in the budget for fiscal 2024 for the Cemetery Department to accommodate additional operating supplies costs after making structural improvements to cemetery grounds.
• confirmed the reappointment of Rebecca Leslie to the Board of Trustees of the Police Pension Fund for a term ending April 30, 2026, or until her successor is duly appointed and qualified.
• amended line items in the budget for fiscal 2024 for the Downtown Maintenance Department to accommodate additional operating supplies costs including renovations to the public bathrooms located along the riverfront.
• amended line items in the budget for fiscal 2024 for the Wastewater and the Water departments to accommodate additional operating and electricity expenses. Both departments had an over $20,000 expense for electricity costs due to a surcharge posted to the accounts based on usage. The departments said they are currently looking into ways to avoid this surcharge in the future.
• confirmed that all required documents had been received from Sister Cities for their $6,000 donation request; all required documents had been received from Whiteside Area Career Center for the $2,500 donation to the CEO program; and all required documents had been received from The Dixon: Historic Theatre for its $350,000 donation request.
• authorized a temporary, about three years, construction easement for the Illinois Department of Transportation at the southeast corner of Galena Avenue and River Street.
• authorized the use of $595,000 of Rebuild Illinois funds and $600,000 of motor fuel tax funds for the summer of 2024 street resurfacing program. Both of these requests will now go to IDOT for final approval.
• authorized the city manager to sign a competitively bid contract for the retail supply of electric services for residential and small business customers in the city of Dixon. This allows the city manager to secure the lowest possible rates for electrical services quickly and without needing to call a formal meeting.
• approved the continual intergovernmental agreement between the city of Dixon and Lee County with respect to the GIS Geodatabase that has been in place since 2018. This agreement allows access to geographical information system data already hosted by Lee County and Dixon’s date in one unified location.
• approved a construction phase engineering agreement between the city of Dixon and Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc. to rehabilitate runway 12/30 at Dixon Municipal Airport. The total cost of the rehabilitation was agreed as not to exceed $107,400.