City Board Votes To Buy Drug Dog For Police Department

The Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday night voted to purchase a certified drug dog for the police department from a vendor in Miami, Florida at a cost of $7,500.
Police Chief Gus Clemente says the dog will be used in investigations to search for a variety of drugs.
Chief Clemente says while the dog will be certified, the officer who works with the animal will have to receive some training.
In other business, Jimmy Lewis, operator of the Smithville Golf and Swim Club, is asking the city board to reduce his rent from $2,500 to $1,000 per month in consideration for his making major improvements to the irrigation system at the golf course.
Lewis, with his former partner Darryl Counts, was granted a five year extension of his lease agreement along with a five year renewal option only a few months ago. In that amended agreement is a clause that says “the tenant has committed itself to expend the sum of one hundred thousand dollars in order to dig a second well, to install a sprinkler system for the fairways, and to purchase golf carts”.
Under the previous agreement with the city, Lewis had the golf course and swimming pool leased until 2012 at a rate of $2,500 per month. Under the amended agreement, Lewis was granted an extension of his lease through 2017 at the same rate of $2,500 per month, with a five year renewal option. The monthly rate can be renegotiated in 2017.
Lewis says he has already spent a great deal of money on the golf course and swimming pool and he now needs some help from the city.
Lewis says the volume of water needed to supply water to all the fairways cannot be supplied by the well that now exists and that two new wells are required. He says the holding pond that the golf course now has does not have the capacity to hold the volume of water needed so it will need to be enlarged or a new pond will have to be dug.
Lewis wants a reduction of $1,500 per month in his rent for sixty eight months until the irrigation improvement project is paid off, starting in June, 2006 through January 2013.
City aldermen asked Lewis to obtain more bids on the proposed project and they would consider his request at the next meeting on Monday, June 5th at 7:00 p.m. at city hall.