MERCER COUNTY Police want state funds for area expansion

Police also are looking for federal money to help create a special response unit.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- The Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Commission wants the state to help pay for the commission's addition of Shenango Township to the regional police department.
Farrell, Wheatland and West Middlesex were the municipal members of the department, and Shenango Township joined July 1.
James DeCapua, commission chairman, said an application is being put together asking the state for $178,000 to help finance the expansion.
The application could be filed by the end of the week with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which has a police consolidation assistance program.
Adding the township to the department added 28 square miles to the existing seven square miles of coverage area. The department now has 20 full-time officers and 10 part-time officers.
Some of the items to be covered by the grant include $20,000 for a new telephone system, $30,000 for a Chevrolet Tahoe, the repainting of 10 police vehicles, various traffic and investigative equipment and various police and office equipment.
Pensions plan
In other business, DeCapua said the commission must decide how it will provide pensions for the former Shenango Township police officers who are now a part of Southwest Regional.
A spokesman for Mockenhaupt Associates of Pittsburgh, a pension actuary, said there are two choices.
Southwest Regional can just take the active Shenango Township officers into its pension fund, and Shenango Township's pension account will send about $100,000 to Southwest Regional's pension fund to cover that liability.
Or, Southwest could take both the active and retired Shenango Township police officers into its pension fund and get about $280,000 from the Shenango Township fund to cover that liability.
DeCapua said he recommends the former plan and leaving Shenango Township to continue dealing with its retirees. That's what the other municipal members of the department did when they joined, he said.
No vote was taken, and Shenango Township Supervisors are expected to address the issue at their Sept. 13 meeting.