YATES CENTER — Everyone who spoke at Monday’s Yates Center City Council meeting was unanimous in saying they support law enforcement.
But paths diverged when discussion turned to how much the city should pay to maintain its own police force.
Monday’s 2-hour discussion was the first after a pair of mid-January Council meetings, during the first a split Council voted to greatly downsize the department; and a special meeting one night later to undo that decision.
Anticipating a large crowd for follow-up debate, the city moved Monday’s meeting from City Hall to Yates Center Town Hall to accommodate a large crowd. Roughly 70 attended.
CITY COUNCILMAN Chris Cavender, one of those who voted to essentially disband the department, replacing it with a single, 40-hour-a-week police chief, launched the debate by pointing out rural communities like Yates Center are losing population — and taxpayers.
“Logic would tell you that a shrinking town needs to shrink its resources in order to stay afloat and survive,” Cavender said, noting Yates Center’s police force was supported by a $424,000 budget in 2025.
Cavender was one of three Council members who voted Jan. 20 for the smaller police force, alongside Tammy Porter and former Councilman — and longtime police chief — Lyle Kee.
In fact, it was Kee who made the motion meeting to downsize the department, which passed with a 3-2 vote. (Kee resigned his post within a day after that meeting.)
By pulling funds from the police force, the city could better support other necessities, such as water and sewer lines, Cavender said.
“We need to come together and figure out the best route for our community,” Cavender said. “That starts with infrastructure. We need to get our infrastructure in order.”
Talk also centered on revenue generated by the department in the form of fines from traffic tickets.
Cavender said YCPD brought in about $91,000, enough to cover roughly one-quarter of the police department’s expenses.
Cavender also provided budget information on the Woodson County Sheriff’s Department, with a staff nearly twice as large as YCPD, has a budget of about $480,000.
He also compared Yates Center to other similar-sized departments. Solomon, in Dickinson County, has no department at all for the town of 1,000, but spends about $114,000 annually to support the sheriff’s department.
Eureka, population 2,300, also has no police force, but spends about $267,000 annually to support the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Department.
Cavender pointed to the community’s demographics, noting a large segment are struggling economically by evidence that their children qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school.
