"I feel much better; I feel somebody is stepping up to the plate," Spring Lake businessman Don Crowdis said. "I think that the chief doing what up till now as she said nobody has been proactive."
The town has been without a police department since early May when a judge stripped the unit of authority.
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"We need a set of values and standards that are not flexible, they don't change based on the whims of the chief, the whims of the officers, but they are consistent and people know from one day to the next what expectations are and held to those expectations," Jarvies said.
His transition plan includes getting the department's remaining officers re-certified and retrained in two to three months, recruiting new front line officers and supervisors over the next four to 10 months, and hire a new full-time chief as soon as possible.
"We will move as quickly as we can without taking shortcuts," Jarvies said. "We are dependent on training standards and other forces, but you know if this is adopted, for the first time in nine week we got a direction."
Interim Chief Jarives told town leaders he presented his proposals to Judge Beth Keever late last week and he felt confident she would approve his plan.
Many residents said the plan was ambitious and a big relief.
"I'm happy the plan is going to be implemented, it still needs some tweaking but I'm happy there is some kind of direction is being taken because there hasn't been any in the past," Spring Lake resident Jame Christian said.
Judge Keever still has to give her blessing to the plan and the sheriff's department also has to agree to help train the officers.
Spring Lake Alderman will meet again on Thursday to get an update on plans from Jarvies.
