Town of Ellicott’s newest Police Chief, Daniel Ingrao briefs the town council during a town board meeting held Tuesday. Ingrao replaces longtime Police Chief William Ohnmeiss, who retired last month after a 33-year-long career in law enforcement. P-J photo by Christopher Blakeslee

The town of Ellicott has promoted Dan Ingrao to be its new police chief after the retirement of former chief William Ohnmeiss.

“Welcome to the new police chief,” said Janet Bowman, Ellicott town supervisor.

Ingrao was promoted to the police department’s top command position following Ohnmeiss’ retirement after a 33-year career in law enforcement.

Ingrao told the board that the department should be receiving a Discovery Grant and that he’d like to use those funds to potentially hire an administrative assistant or support staff to help with case management and digital uploads and to take some of the burden off the patrolman and frontline supervisor who’ve had to take on the additional support duties.

“We haven’t had a person in a position like that for two or three years,” he said. “I’d like to hire someone part-time, maybe three days, for 16 hours to help out.”

In other business:

Ellicott Code Enforcement Officer Brandon Shelters reported that he’d issued 21 building permits and 10 property maintenance warnings, conducted 96 fire inspections, and issued two stop-work orders.

“Of the 96 fire inspections I’ve conducted, only 38 have paid the fee. I’ve sent out 30 letters for payment, and about 60 people are now 60 days past due,” he said. “I’ve also got three people in court regarding unresolved maintenance and fix-it orders.”