SHARON POLICE Official drops idea of merger

SHARON, Pa. -- City Council President Fred Hoffman said he's dropped the idea of launching a study of the feasibility of merging the Sharon and Southwest Mercer County Regional police departments.
City council voted 3-2 last week against holding any merger talks with Southwest Regional, but Hoffman said after the meeting that, as council president, he had the authority to launch the study without council's approval. He said he could appoint a study committee to look at the feasibility of a merger and then bring those findings back to council.
"If there was any indication of support, I'd do it anyway," he aid.
However, after talking with Southwest officials after last Thursday's council meeting, Hoffman said he's dropping the issue.
Southwest told him to forget about it, he said. Some of that agency's member municipal councils apparently weren't aware that the commission had asked Sharon to discuss the possibility of a merger, he said. Farrell, Wheatland and West Middlesex make up the commission.
Sharon Mayor David O. Ryan and the Sharon Fraternal Order of Police also opposed any merger talks.
Ryan said he would veto any legislation calling for a merger with a police commission form of operation, though he said he did have a proposal to have Sharon take over police services for Farrell, Wheatland and West Middlesex and disband the police commission.
That plan was never presented.