GREENVILLE, PA. Chief seeks grants to improve, expand force

He hopes to obtain funding to pay all the costs of adding police officers.
By LAURI GALENTINE
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Thomas Strahler, the Greenville-West Salem police chief, isn't going to let the borough's financial problems keep him from trying to improve his department.
Instead, he's going after all the grants available to police departments to pay for equipment and even more officers.
Strahler hasn't let requirements for receiving one of the grants intimidate him, either. He simply applied for a waiver.
The Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, grant will pay salaries for police departments to add one full-time and one part-time officer.
The federal grant is set up to pay 90 percent the first year, 50 percent the second year, and 25 percent the third year. After that, the department is required to keep the officer on staff for one full year at its own expense.
Strahler said he has applied for a waiver to that rule, and requested the grant pay 100 percent for a full three years.
After that, he said, "We're having a lot of people retire right now. We should be able to afford to keep the full-time officer."
Strahler said the department can afford the part-time officer even without the grant.
If the grant goes through, the full-time officer will work a 40- hour week at $11 or $12 per hour. He has requested $115,504 from the grant program to cover that officer's salary for the three years.
Strahler said the part-time officer will make $10.38 per hour and work 24 hours per week. He is seeking $32,244 for the three-year period to pay that salary.
Equipment
Strahler said he also has applied for a $20,000 Better Policing through Technology grant from the state Department of Community Development.
Of the three mobile data transmitters that can help a patrol officer get information in minutes while still in his cruiser, two have stopped working, Strahler said. He said the other isn't going to last long.
Other equipment Strahler hopes to purchase if this grant comes through includes evidence collection equipment like digital cameras and fingerprint equipment.
If the department isn't approved for this grant, "then we have to find the money elsewhere," he said.
He didn't stop there, however. Strahler also applied for a grant through the federal government's Homeland Security Office that would allow the department to purchase a new police cruiser for only $1 per year.
Strahler said all the applications are in and now he just has to wait and see if he was successful.