The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Council celebrates 125 years of OPD
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> City council honored the legacy of the Oneida Police Department Tuesday and celebrated its 125th anniversary.
“As a result of the adoption of the new village charter, the Oneida Police Department was formed on or about July 1, 1894, and led by Police Chief Daniel Sanford with four patrolmen,” Mayor Leo Matzke said. “It’s been interesting looking at the history of the department. In the history of the police department, you moved around a lot.”
“We did,” Police Chief Paul Thompson said. “But we were never more than a stone’s throw away from where we sit right now.”
“And your first building was 12 feet by 18 feet on Vanderbilt,” Matzke said.
“That was a bit before my time,” Thompson said with a laugh.
125 years later and many things have changed for the officers of the Oneida Police Department — they no longer patrol a village, but a city; they have more than four patrol men and they have more than one police car. Matzke said the first police station built around 1894 was made of wood
and had a fraction of the resources the department has now. “It had two desks, two cells,” Matzke said. “And four patrolmen left each day to walk their beats.”
Thompson said it feels good to be part of a department with such a long and storied legacy.
“I’m proud to be part of this legacy and serve this community,” Thompson said.
The next 125 years is a long way off, but Thompson hopes if anything stays the same, it’s the legacy of enduring service to the Oneida city community and its people.
Melissa Mannix, a resident on Stone Street, came before city councilors and presented 23more petitions to the city of Oneida from people supporting a resolution to allow chickens in the Inner District. She urged councilors to take action on this issue sooner, rather than later.
Ward 4 Councilor Helen Acker said while Mannix has presented 130 signatures from people in Oneida, that represents a fraction of the city population and said there needs to be another public hearing. “The last time, it wasn’t very well documented and there was only a handful of people,” Acker said.
A public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 20 to hear from local residents about their stance on the proposed ordinance to allow the raising of chickens in the Inner District.
Local Oneida resident Larry Bavo expressed frustration to the lack of action from the city on the 216 E. Elm St. property. The city council voted unanimously to declare the property a public nuisance and issued an order that the front porch on the property be repaired or removed within 60 days on May 7. Since then, the city has also pursued a declaration of an unsafe structure.
Bavo suggested the city council impose fines to make the property owner do something about the porch. City Attorney Nadine Bell advised against that and said in many cases, property owners do not pay the fines and in the end, the city ends up with the property.
“My intentions are to meet with the assistant fire marshal and have the papers for the unsafe structure petition and have them signed and filed,” Bell said.
Bell said once the unsafe structure petition has been filed with the fire marshal, the final decision whether to declare it an unsafe structure will be left up to a court
Bavo said he didn’t understand why it’s taken so long for the city to take action.
“I’d agree with you that yes, it shouldn’t have taken so long,” Matzke said. “There have been other things that popped up along the way and our city attorney has been busy. That’s the reality and we’re going to correct it.”