North Cornwall Twp. adopt a charter agreement

The North Cornwall Township Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted an inter-municipal agreement to form a regionalized police force with North Lebanon Township.

In a unanimous vote, the supervisors approved ordinance no. 335 following a public hearing, formally adopting the intermunicipal charter agreement during the meeting, a major step toward the formation of the regionalized Lebanon County Police Department with North Lebanon Township.

The vote comes one day after North Lebanon Township supervisors voted to advance the adoption of Ordinance #3-2024, asking residents for feedback and opinions on the potential merger at a public hearing to be held on July 9 at 7:00 p.m. .

The public hearing in North Cornwall was brief, with only two residents speaking during the discussions. One expressed support for regionalization and the other asked a question. However, Supervisors Ron Sell and Mike Wahmann said they have heard nothing but support for the potential merger from North Cornwall Township residents.

As a township experiencing rapid growth in both the commercial and residential markets, officials see the merger as a way to increase the number of available officers, become more attractive to potential new hires and save money long-term.

A regionalized police force would allow localities to have a police force of 24 officers at its inception, potentially allowing five officers on duty at any one time. The number of officers on duty has long been a concern for township officials, often with officers working alone.

It will also include a detective, giving the police force the ability to investigate, something North Cornwall Township has never had.

“It will expand officer opportunity for promotion, better overall response time and better safety for the community as well as the officers themselves,” Wahmann said. “And so, my wish, or my hope, is that we can move forward with this.”

North Cornwall Township currently has nine officers, adding two more Tuesday after supervisors approved their hiring, provided they pass preliminary exams. Those new hires will still have to attend the police academy.

In May, North Cornwall Police handled a total of 511 calls. Of these, 133 traffic arrests, 18 off-traffic arrests, 17 criminal arrests, made contact with 290 people, issued 82 traffic warnings and 39 parking tickets.

“They were at a job fair last year, both our department and North Lebanon, a job fair at Harrisburg Area Community College with a graduating class of police cadets. Not a single one,” Wahmann told the Lebanon Daily News. “There were 13 police departments represented there, the only two police departments that recruits went to looking for information and/or jobs were Northern York and Northern Lancaster Regional.”

Besides more officers, Sell said another advantage of the merger is that the state is more likely to give grant money to a larger, regionalized police department than a smaller municipal force. It is possible, he said, that there may be grant funds available to assist in the process of establishing the regional department.

Adoption of ordinance no. 335 was needed to establish the Lebanon County Regional Police Commission, Wahmann said, made up of two members from both townships and an at-large community member, who would rotate annually, who would lead the department as a quasi. -government agency that will make decisions for and on behalf of the police department.

The charter, which was approved during the meeting following the ordinance, will serve as a guide for the commission on how it will establish and operate the department.

“The commission will now move forward and collectively bargain with the 24 officers, we will create a new pension system that will combine the North Cornwall Police Department pension and the North Lebanon Police Department pension into one new pension. There is a lot of work involved. in this,” Wahmann said.

The commission will also have to do things like make sure equipment between the two departments is compatible and decide what police patches and vehicles will look like.

The charter contains provisions that would allow other municipalities to join the regional police department, Wahmann added. While he could not say who, he said they had received inquiries from at least two different municipalities and anticipated that they could join within the next two years after the establishment.

The advantages of adding additional municipalities would be that the cost per officer would decrease. The costs of regionalized police forces would be split between localities 50/50. The projected budget for the first year of operation, Wahmann said, is less than this year’s combined budget for North Cornwall and North Lebanon.

The targeted operational date is Jan. 1, 2025, but a proposed budget for the new police department is scheduled by then.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Get to him at [email protected] or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on the Lebanon Daily News: North Cornwall Township PA adopts charter to regionalize police