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New hire tenders his resignation
By: 
Ann Gill
Editor

    Just when the Coal City Police Department thought it was back to full force, its newest officer tendered his resignation and departed the village without notice.
    Kevin McGrath was sworn in on May 9 and within a week he had turned in his badge, uniform and department issued equipment.
    McGrath came to Coal City with eight years of police experience from his time as a patrol officer in Streator and was selected as a lateral transfer by the Coal City Fire and Police Board.
    As a certified officer, McGrath’s training was simply to get to know the community and the department’s policies and procedures.
    On the night he was sworn in, McGrath told village officials he was looking forward to his new position.
    According to Police Chief Tom Best, McGrath resigned for personal reasons, more specifically to help run a family-owned business.
    “There’s an illness in the family and this is something he felt compelled to do. I’m not happy about it, but I understand. We wish him and his family the best and now we move on,” the chief said.
    The Fire and Police Board has the option of filling the spot with another lateral transfer.
    “We have an individual who is a possibility to do a lateral, but I do not want that at this time,” said Mike Lareau, chairman of the Fire and Police Board.
    A part-time officer was hired last year and has been filling in shifts. Lareau said the part-timer is doing a good job, so for now, it’s in the department’s best interest to just keep him on the schedule.
    The Fire and Police Board is looking to hire a new officer and send them to police training early next year. The first task will be to conduct an exam and develop a hiring list, since the current list is out of date.
    Lareau said the process will be expedited, but it will still be late July or August before a test can be conducted and it will take some time for a list to be generated and the board to go through the hiring procedures.
    With the next available PTI course starting mid-September the earliest Coal City could get a candidate to training under the 14-week course would be late January 2019.
    So it’s likely the earliest a new officer would be on the street is late April or early May 2019.
    Lareau and his fellow fire and police commissioners believe it’s in the best interest of the village to hire new rather than go with another lateral transfer.  
    “I think let’s go new and look for the future. That’s what we need. We got some guys who will be pulling the pin here one of these days, so let’s get some young guys going, I think that is our best avenue,” Lareau said.
    Should the police department find itself in a situation where they need someone, Lareau and the chief feel confident they could reach out to the certified officer who landed second on the list of lateral possibilities.
    “He seems like a quality guy, but I feel we’re better off not going that way unless we have to,” Lareau said.