Ville Platte City Council Meeting January 22, 2020 The Ville Platte City Council, Tuesday , discussed a growing crime problem through the city and agreed upon solutions to combat the crime issue. Two representatives of the business community attended the meeting, Cody Vidrine of Ace Hardware and Angie Shexnayder of Ville Platte Clinic Pharmacy. Vidrine related three recent incidents of crimes around his business involving juveniles. He said "I am not worried about dirty streets . We need to get more police on our streets." He was commenting about the fact that the police chief announced he has only one officer on patrol per shift in the city. "It is time for us to do something. This is getting out of control. If something is not done, someone is going to get killed." Angie Shexnayder was surprised at the low pay a police officer gets. "My pharmacy techs are making more money than our police officers who are risking their lives." City Councilman Bryan Riggs commented "We lost population in the city and crime increased. We raised utility fees to correct the budget deficit and to give more money to our police force. The city council has approved hiring ten additional police officers. Two were hired last night. The problem is that a police officer has to become post certified by attending special training at a police academy for several months. One of the two officers hired last night is post certified so she can go to work immediately. Mayor Jennifer Vidrine announced that as of Thursday, all calls to the city police will automatically go to 9-1-1 dispatchers. The savings of some $80-100,000 will be used to beef up the police force. Mayor Jennifer Vidrine also announced that a new free anonymous tip app will launch for Ville Platte residents in February to help fight crime. The problem is low pay for police officers. The city council agreed to gradually raise the pay for police officers to $15 an hour to compete with police departments such as Opelousas. The police chief said the newly trained officers in Ville Platte are leaving the city to better paying jobs elsewhere. The city council approved giving the authority for the police chief to hire new officers after consultation and approval with the mayor without having to wait for the full city council's approval. The city council asked the city attorney to review options to restrict operations at the L&V Store where loitering is common and has been the scene of a shooting. In other action: --C.P.A. Vic Slaven reviewed the finding of an audit on the city's financial records that ended as of June 30 of last year and gave the city a clean unmodified opinion; --the city spent $57,000 in December than in November and Mayor Jennnifer Vidrine blames the increase to payment of the auditor, the payment of an insurance premium and repairing a sewer pump; --voted to get an estimate on the cost to repair its city street sweeper; --approved paying a longevity pay increase to city employees who have been with the city for five years or more. The cost will be $14,688; --the city council welcomed the new Evangeline Chamber Director Erin Hoffpauir; --heard the fire chief report for December: 27 calls, 4 structure fires and 6 grass fires; -heard the police chief give his December report: 360 calls, 19 citations, 32 arrests, 11 felony arrests and worked 38 accidents; --announced that the city has demolished five abandoned properties in December; --approved a liquor permit for the Swamp Pop Reunion dance on Feb. 24 at the civic center.