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Eagle Lake City Council approved a take-home vehicle policy for its police department, discussed future airport work and more during its meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 13.
City Manager Tink Jackson cited the city’s lack of a take-home vehicle policy as a primary concern for recruiting and retaining officers. Take-home vehicle policies allow officers to take home and commute to work in their patrol units. According to Jackson, Eagle Lake was the only agency in the area to not have a policy.
“This will be another step for recruitment,” Jackson said. “It will definitely be something that will help with retention because it’s hard when another department comes up and says, ‘Well, we’ll give you a vehicle.’ And, we are telling them they can’t take one home.”
Jackson noted that Eagle Lake PD does not have enough vehicles to allow every officer to take one. Eagle Lake PD has six patrol untis and six officers with vacancies for two more. Jackson said under the new policy, officers would be permitted to take home their patrol unit only during their twoday shift rotation. Officers with residences over 50 miles away would be excluded from the policy.
“Because we end up with officers that normally live a significant distance away from town, that was one of the limiting factors we talked about,” Jackson said. “… Basically, what this policy would do is it’s kind of an in between for what other departments do and what we do.”
Officer Kyle Winkler shared that take-home vehicles are now considered industry standard and that he has had while previously working at smaller agencies. He said the policies have saved him around $8,000 a year on wear-and-tear and fuel due to living in El Campo. Winkler also said officers carry a large amount of equipment that can take a lot of time to transfer between a personal vehicle and a patrol unit.
“There has been times where officers have been dispatched to disturbances between 5:45 p.m. and 6 p.m., and I can’t do anything about it,” Winkler said. “I’m coming in in my personal truck and then I’ve got to weigh the option of…do I respond in my personal vehicle without any cameras or any of my equipment ready to go and help my officer.”
Winkler noted that many officers work the night shift alone, so the policy would help off-duty officers respond quickly straight to the scene instead of having to go to the department building. He said the policy proposed by Jackson is “reserved” compared to other agencies in the county.
The council voted unanimously in favor of the policy, but Councilmember Amy Maxwell voiced a desire to review the policy more thoroughly beforehand. Afterwards, councilmember Billy Sosa encouraged officers to share concerns and ideas on recruitment and retention with the council at meetings instead of on the street or online.
“We need to spread the word that we are listening. Sometimes we can hear you, but we can’t act,” Sosa said. “We need more voices from out there. There’s a lot of problems here, but we need more voices.”
Airport, other updates Jackson provided an update on the airport’s capital improvement plan. The Texas Department of Transportation is implementing new changes and requirements to be more aligned with the Federal Aviation Administration. Jackson said the airport aims to install a required security fence by the end of 2027. Mayor Tim Kelley asked about the roadway extension.
“For the extension on the roadway itself, what the plan has been all along is we get all of the other requirements that they have met at the airport, and then once we get all of those met, then we are eligible for FAA funding and not just TxDOT funding,” Jackson said.
If the city decides to wait for FAA funding instead of funding the project itself, Jackson said that process would begin around 2030. Jackson also said the timeline could advance through public-private partnerships or FEMA funding. The FEMA funding would be so supplies could land at Eagle Lake during disastrous storms if Hobby Airport in Houston is flooded.
The council approved a motion to install a speed limit sign with an attached “slow down” sign on Allen Street. Members of the Martinez Family, who live in the three homes on the street, asked for the sign and shared concerns over the danger of speeding vehicles to frequent pedestrians.
Engineer Jared Engelke with Strand Associates shared that the 2023 Bond Street and Utility Improvements Project is concluding. He will be meeting with Jackson in the coming months to address potholes created by the construction. The city intends to clean up loose gravel during a school break but has equipment out of service and needs to borrow other equipment from the county.
