Dover News: Boy Scout buys flags; Police get three new cruisers
DOVER (WJER) (April 20, 2023) – A Boy Scout is helping Dover beautify its downtown. Jason Reed of Troop 87 is buying 36 flag poles with American flags to put in and around Dover’s downtown square.
He applied for and received just over $1,000 in city bed tax money to make the purchase as part of his Eagle Scout project.
Fire Chief Russ Volkert, who also chairs the city’s architectural review board, says the city has not consistently displayed its downtown flags for years. Some of the wooden poles have gotten warped in storage, some of them are different lengths, and the board deemed replacing them a worthwhile project.
The flags are about 10-feet tall and go into holes in and around the square. Mayor Shane Gunnoe says the city finally put them back out last year after about 15 years when a resident asked about their whereabouts. That resident suggested New Philadelphia’s downtown looked better than Dover’s because it had flags on display.
Council quickly approved the bed tax grant this week, hoping to get the flags up before the summertime holidays.
City buys new police cruisers
The Dover Police Department’s three new police cruisers are arriving just in time.
City Safety Director Gerry Mroczkowski says the three cars – which cost $137,000 total – are being refitted with new equipment before heading out into service.
In the meantime, two other cruisers are out of service.
Mroczkowski says the school resource officer’s cruiser was totaled when a tree fell on it during the first big windstorm we had in March. It was in the officer’s driveway in Dover Township, and no one was hurt.
The bright side of that is we got a little over $17,000 for the car, so that’s a good thing.
The department’s K-9 cruiser is experiencing engine problems, despite having only 41,000 miles on it. Mroczkowski hopes they can get that fixed.
He says the department is making do with what they’ve got – including a Ford Taurus for the school resource officer – until the new vehicles are ready.