Thorndale to hire new police officer

By Lindsey Vaculin

General Manager

Thorndale will hopefully soon have a new police officer.

Thorndale Police Chief Martin Jackson asked the City Council to approve the hiring of Joah McCaleb during its meeting on March 8.

“We started looking for an officer last October when we knew that Michael was going to take the constable’s position,” Jackson said. “We have had a lot of applicants. I think we have done good for the community, so I didn’t want to just hire a warm body to fill the spot.”

Jackson said that McCaleb currently works for the Brady Police Department. 

Council gave Jackson the go-ahead to get him hired and he said he will bring him on as soon as possible.

Council also approved the purchase of a 2013 Tahoe from the Allen Police Department for the Thorndale PD to replace a 2008 Crown Victoria.

Jackson said he has previously worked with the Allen PD and he reached out to them to see if they had something to purchase to replace the Crown Victoria. The Allen PD offered the Tahoe with 92,000 miles on it and it will have almost $3,000 worth of equipment already on it. The cost will be $7,000. 

Jackson said he will use funds that have not been used for the vacant police officer’s salary and he thinks there is room in his budget to pay for this.

In other action the council also: appointed Neil Weise, Gerald Niemtschk and Brian Morton to the Board of Directors of the Thorndale Economic Development Board; approved the annual citywide cleanup for April 28-29; approved raising lifeguard pay to $10 per hour for the city pool; proclaimed April as Fair Housing Month; approved five volunteer fireman to attend A&M Fire School in July; and approved the utilization of City Park and baseball fields, along with variances to the noise nuisance ordinance and allow travel trailers and RVs for annual Cook-off in June.