The Westminster City Council approved bids to purchase two trucks for the city’s water treatment plant and another truck for the wastewater treatment plant.

The council voted Monday night to purchase a utility truck for $29,131 and two mid-size trucks for $22,807 each, all from Jeff Barnes Chevrolet of Sykesville, Md.

Margaret Wolf, the office administrator, informed the council that they would also receive a trade-in value of $1,853 for the used utility truck, $2,944 for the water treatment plant’s used mid-size truck, and $4,245 for the wastewater’s treatment plant’s used mid-size truck.

The director of public works, Jeffrey Glass, voiced his written opinion that the council approve the bids from the dealership.

The council made it clear in previous meetings that they planned to support a local dealership.

“We have been in need of these vehicles for over two years,” Wolf said.

The mayor and the city council also listened to council member Tony Chiavacci’s updates on the Westminster Police Department’s new public safety program that identifies certain properties that have repeated violations as “disorderly.”

This information is available to the general public and can be found on the City of Westminster website and will be shared with McDaniel College Department of Campus Safety.

The City’s code enforcement office can use the information to trigger site inspections and give citations for any offenses.  With this new program, McDaniel College students living in these houses are required to meet with administrative officials of the college if given a citation.

Chiavacci offered another solution to implement a joint patrol between the Westminster Police Department and Department of Campus Safety on Thursday through Saturday evenings from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., and McDaniel College will provide funds for the overtime.

“The Department of Campus Safety and the Westminster Police Department will not seek out individuals, but it will send a message to the entire group of residents at the house to stop bad behavior,” Chiavacci added.

The city council also appointed a new member to the Westminster Tree Commission.

Cindy May filled the sixth and final seat on the commission and introduced the Heritage Tree Program for the city.  The program plans to plant trees associated with important local or regional history, people, structures or landscapes located within the city.

“This is a great way to get people involved and connected with the Westminster community,” May said.

She also announced that the program will visit Westminster Elementary School for a tree talk, start the Kings Park Wetland Project, a community effort to remove trash from the marsh close to the park, and have tree-plantings in other city parks and along Main Street.

Gary Ehlers, a member of the city’s finance committee, reported that the Voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP] phone system conversion was successfully completed and that the only phones left to be converted are in one section of the police department.

“We were a little worried that this would not have run as smoothly as it did,” Ehlers said. “But there have been very few problems.”

Ehlers also reported that the council’s voicemail system will be set up the same way as before.

The city council then heard citizen comments with topics ranging from the support of the new police department safety program to the red light camera contract renewal.

Lori Graham, of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, expressed her concern regarding the city council’s vote at a previous meeting to not renew the red light camera contract renewal.  Graham viewed the red light cameras as “a great help for public safety.”

“I did not vote against public safety,” said council member Dennis Frazier. “I saw voting in favor of the red light cameras as government overstepping itself.”