Police officer hired; website update in the works

LOWER SALFORD » Matthew Cotellese is the township’s newest police officer.

Cotellese, who has sixand-a-half years experience as a Reading police officer, was introduced to the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors by LSPD Sgt. William O’Connell at the board’s June 20 morning work session.

Because of that previous experience, Cotellese will have a one year field training period with the Lower Salford department, as opposed to the two years that would be required for a new officer, LSPD Chief Thomas Medwid said at the June 5 board work session.

The official swearing in of Cotellese will take place at the board’s July 11 meeting, board Chairman Doug Gifford said. The meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will be on the second Wednesday of the month, instead of the normal first Wednesday date, because of the July 4 holiday on the first Wednesday.

In another matter at the June 20 meeting, Holly Hosterman, assistant to the township manager, reviewed work being done to update the township’s www.lowersalfordtownship.org website.

“I created a Google calendar that coordinates directly with the website,” she said.

Updates to the calendar will immediately show up on the website, she said.

“The Google calendar was great until I put in the birth date of the township was 1741,” Hosterman said.

Since the calendar was not able to accept that date, she changed to a 2018 date only to be told in response that she was now too young for the calendar to accept that date, she said.

She said the current website is very close to being ready to be migrated over to the new one, after which she and other township staff will receive additional training.

She said she’s hoping the transition to the updated site can be completed by the end of July.

“The website can go live. I can learn how to do it, and then in those next two, three weeks, fine tune it and add more,” Hosterman said.

Building permits are already available online, she said.

“I think it’s going to look a lot cleaner,” Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said of the update.

The update will automatically switch to a mobile version if the person accessing the site is using a mobile device, he said.

“It knows the difference,” Czajkowski said.

The new site will also be Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, Hosterman said.

“If someone’s hearing impaired or visually impaired, they’ll be able to use the website,” she said.