Federal grant provides Boardman police hiring money

A $524,246 grant will allow Boardman Township to hire two police officers with the federal government footing the bill for the first three years.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, announced that the township received the grant through the U.S. Department of Justice Office Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Recovery Program.

As part of a strategic plan mapping out township goals, trustees had planned to hire two officers per year, beginning this year and continuing through 2014.

It’s undetermined whether the grant award means that four officers — two funded with grant money and two paid from township funds — will be hired this year or if the two paid with grant money will meet this year’s hiring goal.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com