POLICE Townships to share department budget

The department has two police cruisers with new lettering.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HILLSVILLE, Pa. -- The new joint police department run by Mahoning and Pulaski townships is on the road and may bring solutions to some long-standing local problems.
Mahoning Township supervisors approved Tuesday a budget to run their share of the department for the last three months of 2004. Mahoning will be responsible for the half of the $42,040, three-month budget, with the other half to be provided by Pulaski Township.
Police officers for the new department, called Northwest Lawrence Regional Police Department, were introduced at the meeting. They are: Chief Jim Morris, Sgt. Chad Adams and patrolmen Robert Sipe, David McBride and John Charino. Morris and Adams, the only full-timers, come from the former Pulaski Township Police Department, which has been dissolved in favor of the cooperative effort.
Morris said that the three patrolmen will begin patrols when their state certification comes through in approximately two weeks. Currently, they are riding with Morris or Adams. The department has two cruisers, both from the former Pulaski Department, that have been re-lettered with the new name of the department.
Phone numbers
Morris said the new department can be reached in emergencies by dialing 911. For nonemergencies, residents should call the Lawrence Emergency Operations Center nonemergency number, (724) 656-9300; Mahoning Township, (724) 667-8801; or Pulaski Township, (724) 964-8891. He said that the office is currently in Pulaski Township, but that office space will also be provided in Mahoning Township.
Morris urged residents to call police with their complaints and not wait until township meetings as they have done in the past.
Supervisor Vito Yeropoli said since the police department started Oct. 1, he found that an alarm drop at his business resulted in a police officer arriving in 12 minutes, compared with more than 30 minutes when the township had to rely on Pennsylvania State Police, who cover the entire county.
One woman asked for a reassurance that the police "will be able to do their job." She said "everybody knows everybody" in the area and asked whether police will be pressured to fix tickets.
Exposito said this issue was addressed when the police commission met. "I don't care if it's my child," he said." There will be no time anybody can call a supervisor and get a ticket fixed." He noted that doing so can result in federal criminal charges.
Other issues
Also Tuesday:
*Exposito was authorized to cooperate with Pulaski and Union townships in an effort to obtain a $30,000 grant to do a comprehensive plan for the U.S. Route 422 area. Exposito said that with the recent extension of waterlines to the area and the possibility of a racetrack being built there, zoning and other regulations must be in place.
*Supervisors accepted the resignation of Bill Wyza from the Mahoning Township Planning Board.
*Exposito, who is also township fire chief, reported the department assisted in pumping water out of senior citizens' homes and other structures after recent flooding in the Pittsburgh area.
*He also said the water table is high and springs are emerging from the ground. He said anyone who notices a hole in a road should call the township building.
*Supervisors agreed to allow a temporary mobile home on a Baird Road property where residents had a structure fire.