BELLE — The city of Belle is advertising to hire a chief of police since former marshal Terry Connors stepped down on Aug. 9,  four months into his four-year term.

Acting Mayor Daryl White Jr. said the appointment of a chief of police will allow aldermen to pull candidates from other places, not just within the city limits.

“We want to hire a chief of police,” White said. “(The position) will still be on the election (ballot) in April.”

White explained that the board is choosing to hire a chief of police instead of a marshal because it allows them to try to find someone outside of the city limits as the ordinance requires.

“We will work on making these changes to the ordinance for next year,” White said. “There’s got to be some good, retired patrolmen out there. There’s some good people out there, we just have to find them.”

White said the right candidate will be a fully certified officer.

“The candidate will be expected to perform a full panel of police duties, and administrative duties and he will be expected to patrol and write citations,” White said. “He will be a 100 percent police officer.”

White added that they have not set a salary schedule for the position.

“When we hire someone it will depend on their qualifications,” White explained.

The city has a small police department budget in place and a larger budget to cover expenditures for its contract with Maries County Sheriff’s Department.

“The budget we are going to approve for this year will have a line item for the police department,” White said. “We always have a police budget. We always had a marshal so it will increase on this budget that will pass this month.”

White said the finished 2022-23 city budget was expected to be finished by Monday afternoon. The board was undecided if it would host a special meeting to complete the budget or wait until the September meeting.