Seneca department needs

In a meeting unprecedented for Seneca, city department heads, one after the one, stood before the mayor and council and relayed their greatest needs to ensure top quality services to the public for as long as the next 25 years. City Administrator Greg Dietterick orchestrated last night’s meeting at the former Kellett Elementary School, a building the city now owns and uses for fire department offices and training. The old school building could find itself the future home for the Light and Water Department. And if that happens, the cramped street and sanitation department could take up space that Light and Water would vacate in the Lowery Building on North Second Street. Dietterick and Police Chief John Covington agree that the police department’s greatest need is a larger and updated 9-1-1 communications center. Displaced police offices could be transferred to the old fire department building at South Oak and Railroad streets. But don’t rule out an eventual new police station complex on the south side of the railroad tracks.