LAWRENCE COUNTY Start-up of police force is delayed

Supervisors said the legalities of the start-up are taking longer than expected.
BY MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HILLSVILLE, Pa. -- Start-up of the new police department that will serve Mahoning and Pulaski townships has been delayed until September.
It had been scheduled for start-up this month, but Mahoning Township Supervisor Poncho Exposito told residents at Tuesday's supervisors' meeting that legalities are taking longer than expected.
He said the department will be called the Northwest Lawrence County Regional Police Department. Pulaski Police Chief Jim Morris will be the chief.
Exposito is Mahoning Township's representative to the three-member commission that will run the police department. The other two members include Lew Grell and Tom Gates, both Pulaski Township supervisors. The set-up of the commission provides for one member from each township, with the third member appointed in alternating years from Mahoning and Pulaski townships, beginning with Pulaski this year.
Paperwork
Some of the business which has delayed start-up of the department has been the paperwork necessary to abolish the Pulaski Police Department in favor of the combined department, Exposito said. He added that there is also a paperwork back-up on the state level because of a large number of retirements of state workers who have not yet been replaced.
Exposito said that the commission is also applying for a $25,000 grant for operations and police cars.
Also Tuesday, Mahoning Township supervisors agreed to tear down the old school on Pa. Route 551, Edinburg, pending an engineer's appraisal of whether the building has asbestos. The building, which was deeded to the township by the Union Area School District, is deteriorating and attracting youths.
Supervisor Gary Pezzuolo said the township never should have accepted the building but did so because a local group was going to renovate it and turn it into a veterans' memorial. Those plans never went forward. Exposito said the building can't even be burned down as part of firefighter training until the asbestos evaluation, which could cost up to $4,000.
Code violations
Jim Morris, who was also recently hired as Mahoning Township's code enforcement officer, told supervisors that to avoid "spot enforcement," he plans to divide the township into sections and drive it with them, looking for junk cars and other code violations. He will also meet with Township Solicitor Thomas Leslie for clarification on what types of violations come under his jurisdiction.