SOUTH POINT — A hot-button topic that caused an uproar on social media networks such as Facebook made its way into the discussions during the South Point Village Council meeting Tuesday night.

Council members discussed various options to address funding for the South Point Police Department. Currently the department has only one full-time officer and none of the four part-time officers receive any benefits package from the department.

“I couldn’t imagine being out there without benefits,” Chris Smith, council member, said. “I work in law enforcement so you know I’ll push it as far as I can push it. Our officers need to have benefits.”

How the village would come up with the money to provide the current officers with benefits while also adding some new members to the force is a challenge facing council.

Two options are being seriously considered. One is assessing a $5 or $10 dollar fee to all the residents in the village. However, the legality of such a fee,  is in question.

“It is my understanding that with the way villages are chartered that we do not have the power to enforce such a fee,” Randy Lambert, village legal advisor, said. “I’m going to ask the Ohio Municipal League to put something in writing on the issue.”

The other option is putting a 3 Mill levy on the November ballot that would raise taxes for property owners in South Point. In the last 20 years the village has had three police levies go to vote and all three failed to pass.

“It all comes down to who is willing to pay more money for better police protection,” council member Frank Gaskins said. “We’ve tried to get a levy passed three times and it’s failed three times.”

Several community members were in attendance for the meeting and all said they support the police department, although, several raised concerns about where the money from a levy would go. The residents wanted the money to be specifically assigned to police funding.

“If we do a levy it would be only for the police,” mayor Ron West assured residents.

South Point has seen a spike in criminal activity recently with several break-ins and thefts. With better benefits and more officers, council member Eric Rawlins thinks the department would be better equipped to handle the rising crime rate.

“We have some good officers here in South Point,” Rawlins said. “But, they are leaving to go to other forces because they can be full-time there and get benefits. I want to see the good officers stick around. If these criminals are seeing the same faces every single day I think it would go a long way in deterring some of these crimes. We’ve got to do whatever we can to get our police force benefits.”