At Cuba’s special meeting of the Board of Aldermen on Dec. 9, Police Chief Doug Shelton proposed a program to sponsor a new hire following the resignation of Officer Josh Smith.

“Every time we do have a resignation and we go to hire, we put an ad in the paper, and we wait, and we wait. Five months down the road. Six months down the road. We’re waiting,” Shelton said.

In communication with Crawford County Sheriff Darin Layman and the Steelville Police Chief Mike Sherman about the programs they provide in order to fill those positions, Shelton at the Cuba Police Department has decided they would like to try sponsoring a new hire.

“It’s pretty much the new and upcoming way of hiring, so that we’re not just stealing one police officer from another department, and we’re just rotating around....they start a sponsor,” Shelton said.

The last day to sign up for classes at the Law Enforcement Training Institute in Columbia is Dec. 29, and they start Jan. 5, as part of the sponsorship contract. Someone has already shown interest in this sponsorship.

“Basically, what it entails is we start, we hire them, start salary. They go to the Academy for four months and come back, and that starts the term of their contract, which is usually three years,” Shelton said. “If applicants don’t fulfill their contract, they are responsible for repaying their total salary and tuition costs.” 

When it comes to Police Academy costs, Shelton explained that there is a suggested scholarship that could help cover costs. They suggested filling out a scholarship, the Missouri Blue Line Scholarship for law enforcement, which could save the city money if he’s granted that $5,000 tuition.

The cost of the sponsorship would essentially be the salary of the one hired and the Police Academy tuition if the applicant doesn’t qualify for the Missouri Blue Line Scholarship.

The motion was passed with a 3-0 vote to try out this new program.

In other business, there was a heated discussion on the Hood Park football field agreement between Cuba Youth Football and Crawford County Football. Both leagues wanted the contract for field access.

While Cuba Youth Football argued that they are an establish league in the community for many years, Crawford County Football said that the parents aren’t happy with the mismanagement of Cuba Youth Football that they started a new league as a result.

All discussion between the board and the football programs took up about two-thirds of the meeting time. See related story by Danny Straus.