Fort Morgan High School Assistant Principal/City Councilman Clint Anderson, center, speaks with Mayor Ron Shaver, left, and new Fort Morgan Public Safety Director/Police Chief Paul Schultz before the unveiling of the new design for Fort Morgan Police Department's school resource officer patrol car. Monday was Schultz's first day on the job. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)
Tim Malone will be riding around in style now that his splashy patrol vehicle has been revealed.
And even when he is not driving it, the Fort Morgan Police Department school resource officer patrol car -- now emblazoned with Mustangs and stars and stripes -- will be a show of strength and community, whether it is parked at Fort Morgan High School, Fort Morgan Middle School or elsewhere in the city.
"It shows the community spirit and represents the community really well," Malone said.
The car's new design was created in part by two high school students, 17-year-old Allyson Stroh and 15-year-old Samuel Shaver. They each created drawings and entered them in the police department's contest, which ended the day before Thanksgiving break.
"I thought it was a pretty good opportunity for all of the students to put in their artistic abilities," Stroh said. "I've always been known for my artistic abilities, so I went for it."
"I probably wouldn't have taken the art class if my mom hadn't told me to, and wouldn't have gotten to this point," Shaver said, pointing out that he heard about the contest from his art teacher. "It was a fun design project, and I took a shot."
Malone said that police department officials looked through all the students' designs, and the ones by Stroh and Shaver were chosen as the ones best representing both school spirit and patriotism.
"It was kind of a tough decision," Malone said.
From there, the department worked with The Artworks, a design studio in the Denver area, to turn the students' drawings into the vinyl wrap that would be applied to the patrol car.
And that design studio did not have very much time to complete the project.
Despite getting a large donation from the FMHS Booster Club and a discount from The Artworks, the city required the project be completed before the start of 2017 for budgetary reasons, according to Malone and FMPD Lt. Jared Crone.
Samuel Shaver, 15, receives a plaque from Tim Malone, school resource officer at Fort Morgan Police Department, before the reveal of the new look for Malone's patrol car. Shaver and Allyson Stroh, 17, left, created the winning designs in a contest for contributing to what the car would look like. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)
"They were under a time crunch," Malone said of The Artworks. "They only had 10 days to get the car completed. But they pulled out all the stops and got it done."
"It came about fairly quick, and we were fortunate to have Artworks help," FMPD Lt. Jared Crone said. "It's definitely nice, and it looks better in person than what we'd seen on Facebook already."
The idea for the project came out of the police department looking for a way to get more involved at the school, and then Paul Schultz, then the police chief in Canon City, bringing up what he knew about a similar school resource officer redesign project on the Front Range to Crone, who was acting as interim Fort Morgan police chief, last October. At that time, Schultz was assisting Fort Morgan in its police chief search.
From there, FMPD, city and school district officials worked together to hold the design contest, pick the winners, and bring the ideas back to The Artworks. The car's new look was finished by the Dec. 31, 2016, deadline, according to Malone.
In the meantime, Schultz wound up getting asked to move to Fort Morgan and head up its police department as the city's new public safety director/police chief. His first day on the job was Monday, and he was at the school resource officer car design unveiling.
"I think it's a great project," Schultz said at the unveiling.
Stroh and Shaver had the honors of pulling the car cover off, formally revealing the car's look with their designs on it to the gathered crowd of their relatives, fellow students, city and school district officials, police department representatives and the media.
"On the paper, it looks cool, but in real life, it's even cooler," Shaver said, of seeing "something I designed" out in front of him and everyone else.
"I thought it was amazing," Stroh said of seeing the car's look with her design in it. "I'm really into art, so I think it's really cool."
And it's something that will be a part of the Fort Morgan community's police department and school district for quite a while.
"It's not for the police department. It's for the high school," Crone said, adding that he hopes that the police department and the high school can partner on more projects in the future.
"It's great to see the kids show off their talent," Re-3 School District Superintendent Ron Echols said.
Fort Morgan Police Department School Resource Officer Tim Malone stands in front of his patrol vehicle with Allyson Stroh, 17, and Samuel Shaver, 15. The two teens created designs that were incorporated into the patrol car's new look, which was applied as a vinyl sheet by The Artworks. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)
"I just think it's a great collaborative measure between the police department and the school district. We wanted something like this for a long time," FMHS Principal Ben Bauman said. "It's a great visual representation of the school all the time."
"I think this is really unique," Fort Morgan Mayor Ron Shaver said. "It puts the school resource officer and the police department together. I think the two students did a fantastic job. They captured school spirit and the patriotic side. And it shows the high quality police department we have. The end result speaks for itself."
Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com[1] or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
References
- ^ jgrubbs@fmtimes.com (www.fortmorgantimes.com)
