TRUMBULL COUNTY Grant for school officer rejected

Eight police departments in the state received the grant.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- While there's no money for the village this year, state officials informed the police chief the application to fund a school resource officer is still good for next year.
Chief Brent Milhoan said he learned this week that Lordstown's application for a grant was not approved.
"There were eight police departments in the entire state that got the grant," he explained. "The closest ones to us were Barberton and Streetsboro."
The remaining departments, Milhoan said, were in the Columbus area.
The good news, Milhoan said, is that the grant application from Lordstown will be kept on file and will be considered again next year.
The grant program is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and allots a police department $125,000 toward the three-year employment of a school resource officer. The officer would be a new hire into the department, and his or her primary duty would be to spend at least 75 percent of his or her time in the schools.
Some other police departments in Trumbull County, including Niles and McDonald, employ school resource officers.
Duties
Such officers deal with truancy issues and safety concerns in the schools.
School and police officials hoped such an officer could work as a liaison among the police department, the schools and the community.
But even if the village had been approved for the grant, there would still have been a funding issue. The $125,000 for the grant would not have covered the entire cost of salary and benefits for a full-time officer over a three-year period.
Salary and benefits for an officer run about $52,900 each year, meaning the grant would leave the police department with a roughly $37,000 shortfall to cover in the final year.
Village and school officials had planned to work together to overcome the difference between the grant and the salary.
slshaulis@vindy.com