The Centralia Police Department would like residents to know that upcoming annexation plans in the City of Centralia’s urban growth area will not have a negative impact on public safety and are not expected to change response times of local law enforcement.
“You just live right across the street here from the high school and you're currently being serviced by the sheriff's office,” Centralia Police Chief Andy Caldwell said during a town hall held Wednesday, Sept. 30. “If somebody breaks into your house, they're coming, we're coming, everybody's coming. The only difference after the annexation is who does the report.”
Leaders and staff members with all of the major departments of the City of Centralia and one with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office held the town hall event in the Centralia High School library.
The Centralia Police Department holds regular town hall meetings throughout the year, but this one addressed a specific subject: annexation.
Caldwell acted as a host at the event, opening with a 30-minute presentation and question-and-answer session for attendees before letting those in attendance speak one-on-one with city staff.
While Caldwell led the session, he shared the load with Centralia City Councilor Kevin Curtis, Community Development Director Emil Pierson and others.
Caldwell focused primarily on changes for the police force in the coming Centralia annexation, which he said he expects to go into effect in the middle of next year, and allowed general questions for city staff all across the board.
Caldwell’s core message was that he doesn’t expect annexation to cause any major changes for the police department.
“You’re safe in our community, and it’s because you have good officers,” he said.
But that didn’t stop him from also getting into specifics.
According to Caldwell, the Centralia Police Department currently fields upward of 14,000 calls per year. The department expects that number to go up by 7%, or around 1,000 calls, after annexation. Caldwell said the lead concern he has heard from residents is about which department will serve them and if it will change response times or service.
Caldwell was very clear with his response.
“Not much is going to change,” he said.
The chief predicted that if wait times did have to increase, it would be only for non-priority calls, but he also said he was optimistic that the city would work hard to maintain and increase staffing levels to adequately serve the city’s larger population after annexation.
Near the end of his time speaking, the chief discussed officer-to-population ratio numbers, which in Centralia currently sit at around 1.56 officers per 1,000 residents, just below the city’s goal of 1.67 officers per 1,000 residents.
That goal is included in the city’s new comprehensive plan, which is meant to guide decision making for the next 10 years. The department at this time has 29 officers on staff.
Caldwell asked attendees to “challenge your thought process,” adding that he is more concerned with a different number when measuring the department's effectiveness. The chief would like to see the department reach the threshold of officers spending less than 60% of their working hours responding to calls for service.
He described that number as measuring how much time officers have to work on being proactive and doing work that will prevent crime ahead of time — or catch it in the process — rather than responding to it.
“When we see proactivity drop, that's when we do notice we start seeing spikes in crime,” Caldwell said. “We'll see traffic complaints go up, things of that nature. So the goal is to try to get us below that number.”
According to Caldwell, the department is currently just above that number. At the same time, he was openly optimistic that staffing in the area would remain steady or even improve in the coming year.
He briefly shared a verbal commitment from the city council to keep it that way.
Overall, Caldwell urged residents to continue calling 911 and relying on the Centralia Police Department while resisting any notion that the department or the regional 911 call center are too busy for their call.
“I'm going to ask you to please call us,” Caldwell said. “We're not too busy, and that one call might put the pieces together so we can catch a criminal who's been doing something somewhere else.”
Questions also briefly touched on impacts to property taxes or utility bills for those residents who may find themselves and their homes annexed into the city. The general response from city staff to residents currently living outside the city limits but expecting to be annexed was that property taxes and utility bills should go down.
Pierson asked directors of city utilities what would happen to a resident’s water bill as they each responded “it goes down by 30%.” Pierson explained that's mainly because the Centralia City Council added a surcharge to bills for customers outside of city limits years ago. Homes annexed into the city will no longer pay those fees.
He also pointed out that homes currently in the urban growth area pay a Lewis County roads property tax that they will not pay upon being annexed into the city.
One resident raised a concern that he would be switched over to city power from his current provider with the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD), which he said has lower rates than the city.
For those residents that may be annexed in but are currently connected to the Lewis County Public PUD for utilities, nothing will change. According to Centralia City Light Director Willie Wright, those served by the PUD will keep being served by the PUD.
“If you are on Lewis County, you will stay on Lewis County,” Wright said. “If Lewis County PUD has already built their infrastructure to serve you, then we're not going to disturb that.”
Others briefly asked about connecting to sewer and water and conversions away from their septic tank systems. Responses, however, depend on the location of the house and qualification for the city’s recently announced septic-to-sewer program.
For previous reporting on that program, visit https://tinyurl.com/3cp3a6ut.
If all goes according to plan, nearly 2,500 individuals and 1,000 units of housing will be taken into the Centralia city limits.
For previous reporting on the city’s annexation plans, visit https://tinyurl.com/ycx5vmp9.
