Machesney Park is getting a good deal with sheriff’s policing contract

8 comments July 29th, 2008

 Machesney Park Trustees Mike Luke and Stan Wentland are questioning the sheriff’s department’s $2.6 million contract for policing the village.

Does anyone really think that it would make more sense to start a police department, at a cost estimated by Trustee Mark Sorrentino at from $4 million to $6 million, with mushrooming union contracts forever after??????

Does anyone think another bidder would have the capabilities to police MP? Roscoe, perhaps? Get real.

I urge Luke and Wentland to do cost comparisons.  Consult Loves Park, which insists on doing everything (except bus service) all by itself. I’ll have more to say on this in my Thursday column, and intend to look at the cost of running a full-service police department in comparably-sized cities Belvidere and Loves Park.

There’s no way MP could provide the same level of police protection as the sheriff for anywhere near the price.

Why do we rail against “big government” at the national level, only to create exactly that at the local level? MP’s founders in 1981 had the wisdom to establish a village cheaply and efficiently by hiring out municipal services. It’s worked well over the years.

Other villages and cities should be consolidating services instead of building municipal empires just so they can have their own, shiny squad cars. What’s the cost of squad cars with vintage airplane symbols on the side? Too danged much.