MO agenda
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 1, 2009 2:00 AM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Town commissioners are expected Monday night to declare the 20-year-old handguns that the town's police officers have been using as surplus.
The meeting gets under way at 7 p.m. at town hall on East James Street.
The town recently bought 16 new .40 caliber Glocks to replace the aging weapons.
The guns were purchased through a grant from the Governor's Crime Control and Public Safety that pays 75 percent of the $10,000 cost. The grant earlier had helped pay for four TASERs purchased for the department.
The new Glocks replace 9mm Berettas and mean that all of the officers will carry the same model weapon.
Police Major Brian Rhodes found out about the grant and made the application, said Chief of Police Ralph Schroeder.
"Brian did a good job in getting the grant," Schroeder said. "Without the grant we probably could not have gotten the guns. He saw it and went after it."
Declaring the old weapons as surplus means they can be sold with the proper licensing, said Town Manager Charles Brown.
In many cases, the weapons are often bought by the officers who have used them, he said.
In other business, commissioners will be asked to approve a resolution in support of February at Black History Month.
Brown said the town will continue its tradition of jointly sponsoring a Black History Month program with the Carver High School Alumni and Friends Association.
"We help sponsor that along with the Mount Olive Area Historical Society," Brown said. "We have a meal catered and a speaker."
The program is still in the process of being planned, he said.
It will be held Saturday, Feb. 28 at 4 p.m. at the Senior Citizens building on North Center Street.
The town also will honor former legislator Louis Pate Jr. of Mount Olive and former county commissioners Atlas Price Jr. of seven Springs and Efton Sager of Goldsboro.
The board will present certificates of appreciation to the three men for all they have done for the town, Brown said.