BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg City Police will continue to provide security at the Ogdensburg Airport for security services, but officials will investigate more affordable options to implement in the future.

City council approved an agreement with the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority to renew a one-year contract for the service.

The deal will cost the OBPA a minimum of $240,000 which covers two full time law enforcement officers. Additionally the OBPA will be responsible for any additional hours at a rate of $57.69 per hour as needed.

If the agreement is terminated prior to the end of the contract, the OBPA would be responsible for the $240,000.

The high cost has been a concern for OBPA officials who were seeking changes in state law that would allow security officials rather than law enforcement officers to provide the service.

Although that law didn't come to fruition, Chronis said he'll be working with OBPA officials to explore more affordable options.

"I will note that we will be working with the bridge and port authority over the next several months, in quarter one and quarter two, to come up with a system that provides peace officers as opposed to law enforcement officers. So we'll see how that works out financially," he said. "This an onerous contract on the OBPA so as a good partner we'd like to work with them to try and make it a more feasible contract overall."

City Councilor Michael Powers questioned what that would look like.

Ogdensburg City Police Chief Mark Kearns said that the plan being explored would involve using peace officers that served as employees of the city police department.

These officers would be retired corrections officers, state troopers or municipal police.

Kearns explained that these officers would still require training and might end up being part-time positions, the details on the plan hadn't been worked out yet.

Powers also questioned if there would be recurring costs for the city associated with training.

Kearns said that there would, but at this time, it's unclear exactly what the future will hold.

The change could provide relief to the OBPA, but potentially to the city police as well. The city has struggled to fill vacant positions in recent years leading to extensive overtime costs and workload that has put a strain on officers.