WEST YORK BOROUGH, Pa. - As the community continues to talk over its budget, concerns over the future of its police force appear to have passed.
A few weeks ago, West York borough's council president wanted more feedback about what to do with the borough's budget, which is several hundred thousand dollars in the red.
During budget talks at West York borough Monday night, one message from the public was to leave the police department alone.
“We have to be smart about it, we have to make sure that we're taking care of the issues that need to be taken care of in the borough,” Brian Wilson, of the West York Borough Council, said.
Three years ago, the borough rejected a proposal to disband the police department.
But at the last meeting, the talk went back to the possibility of finding a new police force.
This time, that idea did not appear to gain much traction.
“You could sit down and solve those issues by hiring, for example, two police officers, you could eliminate the overtime,” Shawn Mauck, a resident, said. “You could also do some provisions to reduce comp time.”
Instead, the latest proposal from the borough is the sale of its sewer system and a one mill property tax increase to pay for replacement police vehicles along with other maintenance items the borough says it needs, saying there is not much left to cut.
“If you take out a municipal bond to cover that, you're not fixing the problem, you're just pushing it down,” Garrett Wampler, the borough council president, said. “You still have to address the problem.”
Budget discussions will continue in two weeks.