Amps and bean bags

Alan Youngberg, from Prairie Dog Electric, was on hand to set up the new backup generator for the Hanna Marshall building. The generator was purchased through a Homeland Security grant of $14,500.

Youngberg took Marshall Jeff Niemark, Deputy Marshall Dan Starr and chief water operator/public works employee David Sutter through the operations of the machine.

Currently the generator is set up to back up the department's radios.

"That is what it is wired for now," Youngberg said. "Whenever you (Neimark) are ready, we can set up other wiring and backup for the generator to run. This is a 75 amp generator here and we are probably only using 4 amps."

This generator is replacing an older one. Youngberg said the old one was from the early 1960s. He said the old generator was running again after he had put in some parts. Youngberg said the old generator was set up for propane but had been running on natural gas. The new generator runs off natural gas.

The generator is not the only equipment that recently came to the marshal's office. The department got kits to make shotguns into "less-than-lethal" weapons.

"You have a guy with a knife coming at you, this less-than-lethal force is an excellent alternative to a gun," Neimark said.

"These rounds can stop someone effectively," Starr, the person who put the guns together, said. "For lack of a better word, the cartridges have bean bag like ammo, so it doesn't do the same physical damage as a shotgun, but it will stop someone cold."

He said there are munitions that contain pepper spray particles that are also an effective deterrent.

"The reason they are orange handled is that this tells you the weapon is less lethal," Starr said. "They can be other colors to be less-than-lethal. Some law enforcement use purple, others might use yellow."

Neimark was trained in less-than-lethal weapons instruction and can certify others. He will be training Starr in the week to come. He said the weapons will be in the patrol cars at all times.

Neimark said more departments are starting to use less-than-lethal weapons.

"I think every officer should be able to have this option because, maybe you have someone who is mentally unstable and you need to stop them, but a gun might be too much force for the situation," Neimark said.

He said when using the weapon, shots should not go above the rib cage and ideally the thigh area is a good target.

"It can be very effective," Neimark said.

"They were fairly easy to construct since we had the shotguns already," Starr said. "I spent about two hours at the most for both guns and the beauty is that we can make them back to what they once were as weapons."

Both Hanna law enforcement officers said they are happy to have these weapons in their arsenal.