LAKE PARK — The question of funding for the Lake Park Police Department is on the agenda for the next city council meeting, held against a backdrop of public concerns that the department may be disbanded.

Lake Park City Council is scheduled to meet 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, at City Hall. The council usually meets on the first Tuesday of the month but pushed the meeting back a week because of a scheduling conflict that would have kept one council member from attending, said Tabitha Fowler, city clerk.

Topics for discussion on the agenda include the police department’s cost and a separate consideration for the department’s fuel costs.

The cost of running the police department was a major topic during the February council meeting, when council member June Yeomans questioned Police Chief David Kinney at length about the staffing of the police department, hours of patrol operations and the number of service calls the department receives.

Yeomans said closing the police department would save the city “a lot of money.” Kinney later said the department largely funds itself through fines and forfeitures.

Lake Park’s police force — three full-time officers and four part-time officers — generally operates from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office providing coverage at night.

Debate whether council is planning to disband the police and turn law enforcement entirely over to the sheriff’s office became heated during the “citizens to be heard” portion of the February meeting. One Lake Park resident, who opposed closing the department, questioned the council at length on its plans and was eventually ordered removed from the room by Mayor Pro Tem Oscar Griffith, who said he interpreted some of the resident’s statements as threats, though the resident said he was leaving anyway.

Griffith said, “Nothing has been discussed about disbanding anything.”

Carl Taylor, a former city councilman and former Georgia State Patrol post commander, told the council he had seen “a draft copy of a contract that the city has entertained looking at so there is proof that the city is entertaining abolishing part or all” of the police department.

The day after the meeting, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said Griffith and Yeomans had reached out to him about taking over law enforcement for Lake Park full-time, and he quoted them a price of about $30,000.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.