By Tony Cantú
Contributing Writer

Olmos Park city streets – both patrolling them on a brand-new, stealthy police vehicle and controlling speed on a tricky intersection – took center stage at the city’s last regular council meeting.

Police Chief Louis Alcoser secured tentative approval to purchase a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe to fortify his small fleet of four vehicles during an Oct. 2 special meeting of the Olmos Park City Council. Once purchased from Gunn Chevrolet for $27,023, the white car will be outfitted as a police vehicle, with a needed interior cage and specialized exterior lights, but also with stealthy decals that don’t call attention to its law-enforcement status.

“We intend to utilize subdued or stealth graphics, which allow us to be more discreet and mix with traffic,” Alcoser said.

Although a standard purchase for fiscal year 2008 – intended to replace a heavily utilized 2004 Crown Victoria which already has undergone engine replacement – Alcoser was grilled by council members as to why a 2007 model instead of a 2008 version is being sought in the waning months of this year.

For one thing, Alcoser mentioned the later model would cost more than $2,000 more – at a sticker price of $29,496 – which would not give him any room in his budget for the $4,000 or so in needed in modifications. What’s more, he suggested the resale value between a 2007 and 2008 is negligible. Given the nature of their work, police cars are usually replaced every four years, Alcoser added.

“The ’04 Crown Victoria would go up for auction or used as a secondary vehicle,” he explained in response to another council query. “But if we were to dispose of the Crown Victoria, there would be a total of four vehicles, which is what we’ve always had on our fleet.”

Council members tentatively approved the purchase, pending more research into resale values. However, council members suggested the purchase is all but a foregone conclusion as considerable difference in resale values is not anticipated.

In another street-related matter, Chief Alcoser explained the need for so-called “rumble strips” – corrugated-like attachments to the asphalt burned into the surface – at the corner of Paseo Encinal and Wildwood. The device was lauded for its use both as a speed deterrent and as a way to alert nearby pedestrians of oncoming vehicles given the loud rumbling of tires on the embossed surface.

“Rumble strips would provide an audible notification to pedestrians,” Alcoser said. “Materials should be in this week, and in a week or two they could be installed.”

The measure to install the strips was an aberration from the city’s standard speed deterrent policy – the more protracted process of determining where to install speed bumps or stop signs – because of the unique topography at the intersection that promotes speed, council members noted.

“What we were all attempting to do is address a unique situation in Olmos Park,” said Councilman Sean McNelis. “There is a severe downhill slope in this intersection.”

His counterpart, Jeff Judson, agreed: “This was responsive to a lot of people who live in that area, including myself. We just want to alert pedestrians there’s an oncoming vehicle and they’re approaching a dangerous intersection.”

Mayor Gerald Dubinski agreed with the need, but wondered if other residents would clamor for the devices to be installed in their neighborhoods as well: “It is possible to have residents on 10 more streets say ‘Hey, we like this and we want one on our street.’ ”

At least at Wildwood and Paseo Encinal, the installation was unanimously approved, minus an absent Ron Tefteller.