Council members here approved memorandums of understanding with both Springfield and Fairborn police for special operations services at their meeting Tuesday night.

“One of the first things I was asked (when I came to Enon) was, ‘Who do we turn to when we need help?’ ” Chief Lew Wilcox said. There wasn’t an answer to that.

Wilcox said he didn’t request council’s approval because he has plans to use special operations services, but because he wanted to have the option if it were needed.

“Where I came from, I could get on the radio and say, ‘Send me the regional (special operations) team,’ ” he said. Wilcox retired as chief of the German Twp. Police Department in Montgomery County. “I want to build it so it’s there.”

Special operations teams are trained in armed and barricaded subjects, hostage situations and high-risk warrant service activities. It’s commonly known as SWAT, or Special Weapons and Tactics.

Springfield Police Division’s unit, called the Special Operations Team, is trained in high-risk areas, including hostage negotiation. Fairborn Police Department has four-person tactical team, according to Wilcox.

Enon police could also be called upon for their assistance if those larger agencies needed help, he said.

Wilcox said he wanted to be able to turn to either of the agencies for redundancy.

He began work on the agreements in early November and noted it was not an effort due specifically to the recent school shootings, he said.

In other business, Mayor Tim Howard laid out the village’s goals and topics for 2013.

Some of those include reworking the employee handbook, securing funding for the automatic water meter reader project, technology and power redundancy upgrades at the village offices, upgrades to park equipment and the main street project.

“This is always a work in progress,” Howard said. “The things that I mention here are not things that are necessarily going to happen tomorrow.”