Tuesday, March 31, 2009
WARREN — The Warren Police Department will attempt to use federal stimulus money to help in an effort to bring 10 police officers back from layoff and retain 20 others.
The city will get $221,231 of a U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant. The department also will get an undetermined amount of federal money from another stimulus grant called the Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Recovery Program (known as CHRP), said Capt. Tim Bowers of the Warren Police Department.
The city will seek enough money from the CHRP program to try to bring back 10 of the 20 police officers who were laid off Jan. 1 and retain another 20 officers whose jobs are at risk because of the city’s continuing revenue declines, Bowers said.
The program will pay part of the wages of employees on layoff or in danger of layoff for three years, Bowers said.
In the fourth year, the city must come up with the money to pay their wages.
The city plan would be to bank the $221,231 it will receive this year from the JAG grant, along with similar amounts in 2010 and 2011, to help pay the salaries in the fourth year (2012), Bowers said.
For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com