By Anne Thom

When Cliff Sheppeck became the new Chisago County deputy in Stacy, he promised to attend at least one council meeting a month and focus more on patrol and handling crime. And it appears to be paying off.

At the Sept. 26 city council meeting, Mayor Michael Carlson told Sheppeck he was pleased with the service Sheppeck was providing because he had observed a marked decrease in the incidences of graffiti around the park and the bridge.

Sheppeck said the major youth issue in the city seemed to be drinking and smoking.He said he is keeping his eye out for kids abusing substances.

Mayor Carlson also brought up there had been complaints from 314th street residents about ATV riders on the roads and tearing up the ditches.

City Clerk Sharon Payne advised Sheppeck the 2007 city budget allowed for the same 32 hours of service per week as in 2006.

Councilman John Daher said the council needed to consider at this time an increase, decrease or the same number of hours. At the Sept. 13 council meeting there had been discussion that maybe public safety hours should be reduced, but the council had decided public safety was a primary function of government and they were in favor of leaving that line item alone.

Though Sheppeck has altered his patrol route periodically, both he and the council acknowledged the community is aware of his presence.

Sheppeck said he had been told by former deputy Shane Carroll that the number of calls to the city were down.

Councilor Barbara Otterson asked for the statistics for 2004, 2005 and what is now available for 2006 so the council could look at those as they analyzed their public safety requirements.

In other business:

The city is looking for an efficient and cost effective way to notify residents when water and sewer lines are going to be flushed out. Having talked about posting the information to the cityís Web site: stacymn.org, running the information on the reader board in front of the municipal building, printing the information on the city water bill or doing a mailing,

Mayor Carlson decided as a courtesy to citizens it was a small expense and asked the city clerkís office to do a mailing. When the city has done the flushing in the past without notifying residents, there have been calls to city hall and claims of water heaters and light colored clothing not withstanding the process. The council agreed notification would be a good thing to do.