The Ripon Police Department received a pair of generous donations from community members.

One was that for the purchase of a sonic gun cleaner compliments of Mike and Mona Restuccia valued at $1,600.

Mike Restuccia, who also serves on the Ripon City Council, told his colleagues at Tuesday’s monthly meeting that the sonic gun cleaner can handle multiple guns “much more efficiently” and in a timely manner.

“By hand, is how they clean their gun at the police department. It takes 10-man days a year. This cleans the guns, multiple guns at a time – you walk away, you come back and (the guns) are clean,” he said.

The other donation – in this case $10,000 for  department-wide police training – was made possible by Rick and Valerie Van Unen, along with Van Unen and Miersma Propane.

“(They’ve) made monetary donations to the police department over the past several years in order for staff to attend world-class training in specific specialized areas that enhances the service we provide to our community,” said police Chief Ed Ormonde in his Council report.

He indicated that this year’s training will be the decision-based shoot/don’t shoot scenarios and room-clearing exercises.

Council must OK each donation to the department, according to Mayor Danie de Graaf.

“This training is followed with further practical applications in live training at the department range,” Ormonde added.

During the training, the department would be responsible for paying the salaries to those officers in training. As of now, 17 are scheduled to attend the 10-hour training, with an additional four officers of the department’s range being on tap to attend an advanced training day of 10 hours.

“This training will not impact the department’s patrol coverage of the city due to officers being scheduled to attend the training on their days off,” said Ormonde.

In addition, he indicated that the potential cost – estimated at $15,800 – could possibly exceed the donation amount given the over 200 hours of overtime for the assigned officers to attend the training.

A final cost would not be known until a specific training is selected and scheduled, Ormonde noted.