A proposal has been made to the city of Exeter to combine its police department with Washburn’s, with a goal of providing both cities a full 40 hours of coverage per week.

James Morgan, Washburn police chief, made the proposal to the city of Exeter at its June City Council meeting. “It was a rough draft of a contract, and I think the cities’ attorneys are looking at it,” Morgan said. “I was asked about [possibly combining departments], so I drew a contract up.”

Morgan said if accepted, he would effectively run a single Washburn-Exeter department on a full-time basis, splitting 40 hours between both cities, and he would hire two part-time officers to provide 20 more hours to each city, covering both fulltime. Morgan said the contract would charge the city of Exeter for the service at no more than what the city is paying for its department currently.

“The goal is to help increase law enforcement presence and reduce crime,” he said. “I think it benefits small communities to work together.”

Jeff Scott, Exeter mayor, said Exeter’s department has faced challenges in recent years, completely suspended at one point in time.

Since that period with no police presence, Scott and the City Council have strived to increase coverage, leading them to hire Codie Evatt, a full-time officer at the Cassville Police Department, as chief on a 15-hours-perweek basis.

“Codie came to us and asked for a few hours, and we started getting a little coverage,” Scott said. “We are working on getting more, and we’re doing pretty good.”

Evatt was recently injured on the job at Cassville, which Scott said left Exeter again without the level of policing the council would like.

“Codie was off for quite a while, and I understand that,” Scott said. “It just boils down to us needing more coverage. James approached us about doing a community police department and made a proposal.

“But, as of now, Codie is off leave and back working full-time at Cassville, and he is providing coverage to us again. Right now, we are at the status quo with Codie as part-time chief, and any further plans are on hold.”

Exeter also has a second part-time officer, Matt Hoover, who also works at Cassville. Hoover’s 15-hours-aweek contribution gives Exeter 30 total hours of coverage currently.

“As long as we’re getting those hours, we’ll probably stay this way,” Scott said, adding as mayor, he does not speak for the Council. “It was nice of James to reach out, but with Codie back and Matt, I think we are comfortable right now.”

Sheriff Danny Boyd was scheduled to speak at Exeter’s City Council meeting, as well, but was unable to attend due to being on duty at the time.

According to June meeting minutes, Evatt informed the Council Boyd would not be able to attend.

“Codie did say he was speaking on behalf of Sheriff Boyd when he said: ‘He did not support the merger and if it takes place, his deputies will not respond to calls within the city limits unless the call is a felonious act.’

Boyd confirmed his opposition to the plan, but added if the contract were to be agreed upon, deputies would still respond to calls.

“I think it’s a very long distance,” Boyd said. “If they do decide to do it, they will have a full-time police department with a chief and officers who can cover both cities. We, [the Sheriff’s Office], would still provide backup on calls. We’re not leaving them out in the dark. We would still take calls in the county on major incidents if nobody is on.”

Morgan said he is on call in Washburn 24/7, and when he has been out of the city, deputies have taken calls.

“[Last week] I was in Fairview for a ballgame and a domestic in Washburn came in, and the county responded,” Morgan said. “We’ve had two domestics like that. One of them I arrived first but they still responded, and the other, they arrived first.”

Evatt declined to comment at this time.