SHENANGO VALLEY Panel study continues on merging of police

A single department serving combined municipalities would guarantee current officers could keep their jobs.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- It will be at least another month before the Shenango Valley Intergovernmental Study Committee will get a look at how local police departments can be restructured into a single unit.
That would be necessary if the five municipalities involved in the study -- Sharpsville Sharon, Hermitage, Farrell and Wheatland -- decide to consolidate.
A study subcommittee charged with coming up with a plan to join the four departments that serve those five municipalities is one of the last to complete its work.
Others have reported
Other subcommittees studying fire services, community development, street departments and other services have presented their findings to the full committee.
The finance subcommittee isn't finished yet with officials, noting its work can't be done until the police subcommittee submits its recommendation.
Hermitage City Manager Gary Hinkson, chairman of the police subcommittee, said his group has received a report from its consultant, Police Chief Harry Freucht of Peters Township near Pittsburgh, that offers a plan for an 85-officer department.
That's how many officers are now employed by Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Southwest Mercer County Regional Police (which serves Farrell and Wheatland).
Hinkson said his subcommittee was charged by the full committee with coming up with a plan that would allow all current officers to keep their jobs.
Meetings planned
He said the subcommittee plans to have meetings with the chiefs of the four departments and then with Fraternal Order of Police representatives from those departments to show them what the consultant has proposed. At that point, the subcommittee will prepare its own recommendation, which could be ready for the full committee sometime in December, Hinkson said.
There has been growing criticism of the overall study, with citizens in Hermitage and Sharpsville signing petitions asking their officials to drop out.
So far, officials in those communities have refused, vowing to see the study through to completion.
Any move for a consolidation would require the approval of the voters in those municipalities involved.
gwin@vindy.com