Town Administrator          December 16, 2019

Police Recognized
Detectives were recognized at Tuesday's Board of Trustee meeting with the STAR Award for Safety. The prestigious award was given for their professional response, thorough investigation and prompt arrests in September's home invasion robbery and kidnapping incident. The following evening, I attended the Police Department's annual awards ceremony. Chief Stewart presented the detectives with the Department Merit Award commending their expertise and diligence in arresting the suspects 72 hours after the incident.

2019 was an incredibly busy year for the Police Department. All of the 34 officers, 1 code enforcement officer and seven non-commissioned members are worthy of recognition. Some highlights from the ceremony include:

• School Resource Officer Crow was recognized for her exemplary efforts to build relationships with faculty, staff and students at Erie Middle School. Officer Crow worked a myriad of complex investigations ranging from school threats and narcotics violations to domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
• Code Enforcement Officer Patterson was recognized as an outstanding representative for the department and awarded the Community Service Award. Throughout 2019 she received numerous compliments from community members and the Board for her work and her exceptional community outreach.
• Detective Petek was presented with the Merit Award for his timely investigation of a suspicious message, identification of the sender, and coordination with Texas police resulting in an arrest and charge of Terroristic Threats. Thanks to Petek's investigation lives may have been saved.
• Officer Gittins responded to a bank alarm and identified the suspect in the vicinity and arrested the bank robbery suspect in less than 10 minutes.
• School Resource Officer Cara Thoen was selected to receive Employee of the Year for her contribution to Erie High School and community. She has been lauded by school officials, parents and students for her caring nature and willingness to help any time, day or night.

Thank you to all members of the Police Department for your stellar work in 2019!

Town Center Next Steps
As you know, the Board of Trustees approved “in principle” the Erie Town Center Charrette Work Product and the Erie Town Center Code Principles. These are framework documents that Town staff, working with DPZ Co Design, will use to prepare proposed amendments to the Town’s Unified Development Code (UDC), which governs land use and development in Erie. DPZ is also preparing a Draft Master Plan Report to guide this effort. We expect to receive that Draft Report from DPZ this week.
 
Staff will review the Draft Report and work with DPZ to prepare a Final Report, including proposed amendments to the UDC, for publication no later than February 12^th. That will allow time to satisfy all notice requirements for the Planning Commission to conduct a Public Hearing on the proposal March 4^th, and for the Board of Trustees to take final action on the proposal March 24^th.   
 
While this schedule may seem slow to some, the amount of work involved is significant. We want to make sure implementing regulations are sufficiently clear, and yet also not so burdensome as to crate barriers to achieving the vision contained in the Town Center Illustrative Master Plan. We also want to make sure all interested parties—especially the Planning Commission and Board of Trustees—have adequate time to review the proposed UDC amendments.  
 
I want to extending my sincere thanks to the many staff who are involved in this effort and juggling work and holiday obligations during this busy and festive time of year! Thank you for your help in making the Town Center vision a reality!