One of the top five goals set for City Manager Brian Alligood by the City Council is something the council has worked off and on for several years — construction of a new police station.

The council adopted that goal and four others earlier this week. The other goals are regular meetings between the council and the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to help enhance the relationship between the two local governments, continue efforts to improve drainage in the Jack’s Creek basin, avoid raising taxes and complete the master plans for improving Havens Gardens and Beebe Memorial Park.

Each council member had submitted goals he wanted Alligood to work on in the coming months. The council reviewed those submissions and developed a list of prioritized goals comprised of some of the suggested goals from each council member.

“Everybody had a different No. 1 it looks like. I was just looking through it (the list) and it seems like everybody hit (marked) the police department pretty high,” Mayor Mac Hodges said.

The police station project was high on the top of that list, as was the regular meetings between city officials and county officials.

Several years ago, the council shelved the idea of building a new police station over concerns over how to pay for it. And for several years, the city has been talking about improving the working relationship between the city and county.

Other suggested goals for the city manager included addressing the appearance of Jack’s Creek, wellness in the work place, the future of the city’s involvement with 911 and reducing overtime by city employees. As for 911, currently all 911 calls made in the county are answered by the communications division of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, but 911 calls regarding emergencies and other events in Washington are transferred to dispatchers at the Washington Police Department. Those dispatchers send the appropriate personnel to respond to those calls. A proposal called for the police department to eventually hand over its dispatching duties to the sheriff’s office and for the city to help pay for an additional dispatcher at the sheriff’s office. That has not happened.

“The question now is do we stay in the 911 business totally or do we get out of the business totally?” Councilman Doug Mercer said.

Alligood told the council he would prefer the city to retain its full 911 capabilities.

Councilman Richard Brooks said the city should have kept its entire 911 service. Now, he said, the city “should go back after it.”