ALAMOSA — Police items were the top of the agenda for the Alamosa City Council Wednesday evening. It started with the citizen comment, but the highlight was when Sgt. William Squires was awarded a Lifesaving Award by Police Chief Ken Anderson and Miguel “Rosco” Hurtado.

Hurtado was injured July 3 in a motorcycle accident.

During the presentation, Anderson said Squires immediately attended to him and due to “a massive amount of blood loss, Sgt. Squires placed a tourniquet around the injured leg preventing further blood loss.”

Hurtado said Squires kept cranking it tighter and tighter. But because Squires applied the tourniquet, Alamosa Emergency Medical Services Director Dr. Blair Woodbury said it was done so successfully, it remained in place until Hurtado went into the operating room, Anderson told the council.

Woodbury believed that Squires application of the tourniquet likely “saved [Hurtado’s] life,” the chief said.

“I believe that Sgt. Squires acted quickly, used his training and experience, and applied them to save the life of another. I believe his actions are to commended and I am honored to be presenting this award to Sgt. William Squires,” Anderson said.

Hurtado told the council that Squires kept me alive for the EMTs, doctors, nurses and the rest of the emergency team to work on. “This man is my hero,” Hurtado stated.

Squires humbly said that all the training he had to help Hurtado that day, he received from through Alamosa Police Department.

Mayor Ty Coleman commented that he received a call stating the Squires had saved the life of another individual as well. “It’s the little things you do that become a big thing in someone else’s life,” Coleman said.

It started when Ruthie Brown, owner of the Green Spot on State Avenue, said she called the police after she had an altercation with a “couple of punk teenagers.” There were other incidents with the pair the for the next few days, according to Brown.

She realized that officers have to deal with this kind of behavior every day, she said. The reason Alamosa is short of police officers is because the city does not pay them enough to deal with “dregs of society.”

“They strap on a [utility belt] and risk their lives every moment of their shifts. … If we can’t pay them more than sham on our community. They regularly work nights, weekends and holidays,” she added.

Councilor Kristina Daniels toward the end of the meeting said it was sad that someone in the community had to have an incident as Brown did. However, she was glad Brown was comfortable enough to call the police to deal with the teenagers. She only wished more people would have respect for each other.

The council approved two ballot issues for the November election. The first is a citizen initiative that would ban all outdoor marijuana growing, both medical and personal marijuana. The second is the 0.05¢ sales tax for street maintenance. The sale tax would be in effect for 20 years.

At the Aug. 7 meeting, the board was split on the wording for the sales tax issue. Councilor Michael Carson preferred a different language, but he supports the issue itself.