Wauseon council votes to add crime watch program

3/20/2002

WAUSEON - Wauseon city council put $5,000 in a new crime watch program to pay for tips Monday.

Although Fulton County has a similar program, city police chief Robert Brehm said Wauseon is large enough to have its own. Payments for tips in the proposed program would range from $100 to $5,000.

Mayor Jerry Matheny estimated the program would spend about $350 a year on tips.

“We don't have very many crimes out here, “ he said. “But money talks and I'm hoping this might be enough,” he said.

More arson and breaking and entering cases in rural northwest Ohio in the past year than usual were part of the impetus for the program. Wauseon has kept $500 in a drug stopper program, but has not paid for a tip in years through it, the mayor said.