
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991                   TAG: 9103240146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D/11   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DUBLIN MAYOR VOWS TO RETAIN OFFICERS' JOBS

"All officers would be taken care of. All officers would retain a job," Dublin Mayor Benny Keister said Friday responding to a news report about Town Council's executive session Thursday night in which council discussed abolishing the Police Department.

Although no action was taken in the executive session, council members were instructed to make their comments to the Finance Committee, according to Councilman Colbern Linkous. Under the proposal, Dublin would do away with the town's Police Department and pay for three more Pulaski County sheriff's deputies to take its place.

In mid-1988, Dublin released the department's dispatching office and began rerouting the calls through dispatchers at the sheriff's office.

Keister said one council member proposed the idea to see if it was feasible. Although he refused to identify that council member, Keister emphasized that council has taken no formal action on the proposal.

Keister said Friday that he had wanted council members to "think about it" before any public announcements were made.

Keister said the Police Department represents the town's biggest budget item.

Although the idea is in preliminary stages now, town representatives have approached county Sheriff Ralph Dobbins about the proposal, Keister said. "There's not enough information to make a decision," he said.

by CNB