To the editor:

As a regular attendee at the Niles City Council meetings, I have seen many programs and event funding cut drastically in the last few months.  At the regular meeting on Dec. 10, I was able to get a short “tour” of the new patrol car and the Hummer the city now has at its disposal. I was concerned mostly with the Hummer. I asked the police chief about it. I learned this new vehicle was donated to the police department, and others across the country, by the military. If these departments don’t take these vehicles, they go to scrap. The cost of equipment for this Hummer and the paint job needed, which was about $4,000 came from drug forfeiture money. This type of vehicle can be used in place of regular cruisers to get around and over storm damage, used to go into places our ambulances can’t go and serve the public. This vehicle has room and a place down the middle that will accommodate a back board with a patient to be transported to that waiting ambulance. I am glad to learn that this vehicle is provided to government entities at no charge and the drug dealers inadvertently have supplied this service to many communities. This vehicle can also be used during disasters.

Jan Personette
Niles