LIBERTY National search is planned for new police chief

Trustees placed police and fire levy renewals on the November ballot.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- Township trustees will conduct a national search for a new police chief, says Darlene St. George, township administrator.
Trustees voted Monday to pay up to $9,210 to the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police to conduct the search. St. George said the job would be advertised in national law enforcement publications, and notices about the job opening will be mailed to 1,000 law enforcement agencies.
The search is for a replacement for Michael Pilolli, who resigned as chief April 28. Ronald Heineking of Kent is serving as interim chief.
Trustees also voted to place a 2-mill police levy and a 1-mill fire levy on the November ballot. Both would be renewed for five years and neither will raise taxes.
They also entered into an agreement for mosquito spraying with Alexander Pest Control, with offices in New Middletown and Warren, at $170 per hour. The spraying, designed to kill adult mosquitos, is scheduled for 8 p.m. until 1 or 2 a.m. May 29-30 and July 9-10.
Spraying is being done this year because heavy April rains created a mosquito breeding environment and because of concerns about West Nile virus, said Road Superintendent Tim Monroe.
Buying cameras: Trustees also authorized a joint purchasing arrangement among Liberty, Boardman and Weathersfield townships for purchase of thermal imaging cameras at a volume discount. Each township will have its own camera, and the cameras will cost about $15,000 each, St. George said.
The cameras, which sense the heat emitted from the human body, help firefighters find people trapped in dark, smoke-filled buildings and can help police find lost persons or criminal suspects in dark wooded areas.
Other matters: In other business, trustees accepted the resignation, effective last Tuesday, of Police Sgt. Michael W. Haynie, who left to become an FBI agent.
"We're still on a record pace for new homes," Jim Road, zoning inspector, reported. Nineteen new homes already have been built this year -- more than normally are built in a full year, he said. Fifty-three new construction permits have been issued so far this year with a combined value of $2,152,473, he said.
Payment errors: Fire Capt. Roger DiFrangia called trustees' attention to about $700 in medical bills and $200 in prescriptions the township's insurance paid in error for Gary Litch's family after Litch left office as a trustee Dec. 31, 1999, after Litch lost a November re-election bid that year. Litch is a candidate for trustee on this November's ballot.
St. George said that matter, as well as payment of about $2,600 in life insurance premiums and administration costs for Litch and two retirees, who left the township payroll in 1999 and 2000, were an oversight.
Litch's medical and prescription bills are to be covered by his wife's health insurance plan or by Litch, St. George said, adding that she is working to get credit from the township's life insurance plan for erroneous life insurance payments.