Winfield approves police hires, resignations

WINFIELD — The Winfield City Council met on Monday, June 2, and voted to approve the hiring of part-time officers, but also the resignation of two full-time officers.
Chief Brett Burleson spoke to the council about the department’s need to hire part-time officers to help reduce the amount of overtime required of full-time officers, especially when summer brings special events to Winfield that require additional officers to help.
The officers Burleson mentioned already work for other police departments but have requested some part-time hours.
Burleson said this wouldn’t be anything beyond what the police department normally does in terms of hiring officers on a part-time basis.
But while the council approved those hires, the council also approved two resignations from officers Austin Swanigan and Marcus Carroll, who accepted other jobs in other fields.
Carroll had recently completed energetic breaching training and was the Winfield SWAT team’s only member certified in the use of that equipment and tactics.
The council also approved posting the openings for those full time positions.
Burleson also shared that the annual Memorial Day ceremony on May 25 went well this year and saw over a dozen people in attendance.
At the beginning of the meeting, Winfield resident Blu McDonald spoke to the council and thanked Mayor Randy Price for his assistance in clearing a fallen tree out of a canal that runs through his property which also supplies the city with water.
McDonald and the council discussed who was responsible for maintaining the canal, since it was built by and for the city, but ran across private property.
Price said he would need to learn more about whose responsibility it would be to maintain the canal.
The council tabled one other business item regarding the possibility of naming a paved alleyway in downtown that hasn’t been named yet.
The meeting ended in an executive session regarding matters of trade or commerce.