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Lakes Area Police Commissioners met last week and accepted the 2016 audit,  and promoted Sergeant Katie Larson to a newly-created Captain post as part of a minor restructuring following Kevin Stenson’s retirement as chief the end of 2016.

LAPD collected about $1.72 million in all its various funds and dipped into fund balance to expend about $2.1 million.  Abdo Eick audit firm representative Justin Nilson, suggested the commission keep an eye on the capital equipment fund which is “getting low” and could be insufficient if there’s a sudden large expense the department experiences.

Budgets for the coming year are approved in mid-summer, so this year’s budget was adopted in July 2016.

Lakes Area Police Chief Bill Schlumbohm said it’s normal for Lakes Area Police to have little carryover from year to year, in the General Fund, calling it a “very zero sum gain.” The 2016 overspending is mainly due to one longtime staff member retiring at the end of 2016, he said.  

The four commissioners, were unconcerned, accepting the audit with no discussion. (Marie Rivers was attending for Jeremy Dresel for Chisago City, along with Bob Gustafson and Kevin Stenson and Curt Flug attended for Lindstrom.)

The commission heard that Officer Connor Quimby is prepared to takeover in fall 2017 as Chisago Lakes’ school DARE instructor. The chief said Quimby got glowing reports as he completed his DARE certification in the Twin Cities, in classes put on by the MN Dept of Public Safety.  

“It takes dedication to complete this intensive class,” the chief explained. The DARE training is two weeks long and  includes presenting  in a real school setting and the candidates for DARE are “graded” by actual students and teaching staff.

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