Mayor	Bookkeeper/Deputy City Clerk
City Clerk	Janitor
Treasurer	Animal Control Officer
Aldermen	Building Inspector
Police Chief	Water Meter Reader
Assistant Police Chief	ESDA Coordinator
Patrolman	Fire Chief
Water/Sewer Superintendent	Assistant Fire Chief
Water Operations Manager	2nd Assistant Fire Chief
Water/Sewer Operator	Fire Dept. Secretary/Treasurer
Water/Sewer Bookkeeper	Fire Dept. Training Officer
Street Superintendent	Fire Dept. Maintenance
Assistant Street Superintendent	Firemen
Street Operator

 

The employee who has worked here the longest is our Chief of Police, Walter Sellens. He has been helping to keep our city safe for 30 years now. Our Animal control Officer, Mike Wright, is the city's newest employee with 1 year of service with our community.

 

The City of Hamilton, City Hall, is located at 1010 Broadway Street and can be reached at 217-847-2936 where Jean Massey or Trish Maerz are available to direct your calls or answer your needs. City Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can also check out our hometown's website at www.hamiltonillinois.org. Many listings are available on our website. If you haven't logged onto it lately you may be missing out on what all we really have to offer in our area. Watch often for special events as they are updated such as our Hamilton Homecoming days which are held in the month of June.

 

The Police Chief, Walter Sellens, describes his department of officers and their services. "The department has 4 full-time officers and 2 part-time officers. We cover a 24 hour clock with officers on the street 20 out of 24 hours. The remaining hours we are on call. We are not always in our office as we may be out on patrol or on a call. The telephone number for non-emergency is 847-3347 and there is always someone available to answer the phone. Balancing the work schedule, with employees needs is sometimes a challenge, but the part-time officers allow for some flexibility in scheduling."

 

Walter Sellens is our Chief of Police with Bryan Finch as our Assistant Chief of Police. Full-time Patrolmen for Hamilton consist of: Tony Strope and Patrolman Robb Bell, with part-time Patrolmen John Wietholder and Chris Roberts. If you would like to read more about our Patrolmen you can see their pictures along with their personal information on the city website.

 

Walter continues, "We have 4 squad cars, two marked and two unmarked. Three of the squads are equipped with video cameras and we have docking stations for our 3 laptop computers in all cars. The computers allow us to do real time inquiries about warrants and license checks without having to talk on the radio, which helps us to protect information of the public by not putting it out where scanners can listen. We also have our own records management system called Crimestar, which is a big help in writing reports and keeping track of information."

 

Walter remembers when he came in 1977 when they had a manual typewriter and one file cabinet, shared the office with the Mayor in the back of City Hall, and the wife, for fifty cents per hour, would answer the police line at our homes after City Hall was closed. "Now we have the Sheriff answer the phone which is much quicker dispatching over police radios versus the old CB radio system in 1977. Of course 9-1-1 helps in getting a lot of information to the dispatch center in a short amount of time."

 

Walter notes that more and more record keeping is involved today compared to back in 1977. Reports are made for all arrests and are required for any incident that is responded to. "We are always documenting events for court purposes or just in case of a future involvement with the same person or problem. Sometimes the information we receive seems insignificant, but there can be a pattern to the crime and the little things make a difference in us being able to put together the bigger picture and help solve the crime. We encourage the public to call their local police and pass on what they see and hear. Nowadays we are more aware of terrorist activity and we need to all be mindful that we may be a small town, but we have all the crimes of the big cities, just not as often. We need to lock our doors, take the keys out of your vehicle, and do the common sense things to protect yourself. We have a population of 3089 people in Hamilton, but we live across the river from Keokuk, a population of over 10,000, so we need to all take responsibility and precautions to take care of ourselves."

 

Walter expresses, "The nice part of being a local police officer is you get to know the people. Often people will call and we recognize each other's voice, and we immediately know their past problems which helps talking about their present problems. Big cities call this "community policing", however this is very common in smaller police departments; to have a continuing dialogue with members of the community and know the general pulse of what is going on. This is also a downfall sometimes as you get to know the people and then when it might be their turn for a traffic violation or ordinance violation makes it sometimes hard to point out their mistakes which result in a ticket or an arrest. It is kind of neat when someone calls to tell you their dog has gotten loose and they are looking for it and we know the name of their dog, too!"

 

On a final note from Walter, "Hamilton is a nice place to live and to work. If you have not been in to meet your local police officer, please stop by and let us know what is on your mind as we need you to help us succeed in delivering services to our community."

 

When you stop in City Hall you will see Jean Massey or Trish Maerz behind the counters to help you with your water bills or tourist information. If you are new in town, please stop in and pick up a new 2007-2008 Merchants Guide with many listings of our merchants and their businesses in town. New families who move to town can pick up a welcome packet created by Shirley Bricker that includes information such as our church listings, school information, and coupons from many of the businesses.

 

I asked Jean and Trish what they enjoyed most about Hamilton outside of work. They both enjoy the people of our community and spending time with their families and friends.

 

Thank you, city of Hamilton, we are proud to have your friendly staff and services available in our community!

 

Please stop by and congratulate Jean and Trish at City Hall and/or meet our Chief of Police, Walter and the other Patrolmen who help keep our community safe and running smoothly as our April 2008 Business of the Month!