Retreat highlights

Police Chief Jeff Hinton

• 26 Community Watch groups formed.

• Call volume is more than 30,000 a year.

• Some areas need more attention than others.

• Laws and courtrooms continually change. “It’s very important for officers and liability to be kept up to date, to solve crimes that come up.”

• Officers encouraged to get out of patrol cars and interact with community.

• “I can’t say everything is rosy. We have issues on pay and working conditions. Overall morale is positive. We want to be part of the solution, not the problem.”

Councilman Ed Liverman to Hinton: “In our district we have a lot of businesses. It seems to be the consensus that business owners don’t know the officers.”

Hinton: “We’re striving to change that. Our officers are aware people in town are subject to sit on a jury.”

Fire Chief Gary Corbet

• Planning a fire Explorer post.

• More activity during Fire Prevention Month. “We plan to expand involvement in the community for installation of home smoke detectors.”

• Need to think seriously about replacing ladder truck. “Our ladder truck is 12 years old. It’s starting to show wear and tear. It costs $8,000 to $10,000 a year to maintain.”

Public Works Director Richard Parnell

• “We get it done. We refer to ourselves as custodians of city. We clean up, repair, we’re  in the background of everything that’s done.”

• Lost nine employees in 2008-2009 and 13 part-time employees. “That was 25 percent of our workforce. We didn’t drop 25 percent of our services.”

• Explore possibilities of contracting street maintenance. “We’ve not resurfaced a street in Roanoke Rapids since 1999. In 1999 the cost per mile was $4,027. In 2009 it was $16,496 for materials.”

Parks and Recreation Director John Simeon

• The inmate program moved the department from being reactive to proactive.

• Improve conditions of athletic fields. “We probably haven’t replaced soccer goals in eight to 10 years. I’m not sure we could do a soccer tournament if we wanted to.”

• Complete plans for a fitness center at T.J. Davis.

Planning and Development Director Amanda Jarratt

• Capitalize on momentum from Opportunity Clean Sweep.

• “Now is the time to take a good, hard look at where we want Roanoke Rapids to be in 20 years.”

• Need to update land use ordinance, storm water management ordinance, water quality plans, sign ordinance and lanscape ordinance.

• Training for board of adjustments and planning board.

• Need for administrative help.

Finance Director MeLinda Hite

• Establish fund balance policy.

• Restore bond rating.

• Continue to build a reserve fund.

• Aggressively collect all delinquent taxes and receivables.

• Redesign city’s website.

Human Resources Manager Kathy Kearney

• Employee wellness.

• Lunch and learn sessions.

• Redesign HR section of website.

• Revise employee benefits book.

• Redesign Channel 15.

City Clerk Lisa Vincent

• Post minutes to website.

• More attractive and user friendly website.

• Review codes.

• Work to have codes on website.

City Manager Paul Sabiston

• Reestablish basic city service and performance minimums.

• Address employee salary issues.

• Stabilize finances of the theater.

• Boost employee morale.

• Update city code.