Regional works on budget, honors officer for 25 years
Pennridge Regional Police Department’s proposed 2013 budget has total expenses of $1,980,300.
“That’s a pretty dramatic drop,” from this year’s $2.1 million, -im Nietupski, an East Rockhill Township Board of Supervisors and Pennridge Regional Police Commission member, said at the commission’s Nov. 28 meeting.
The budget keeps the payment from East Rockhill and West Rockhill at $878,270 each, the same as it’s been since 2009.
While that number appears to be set, not everything in the budget is.
The current five-year contract with department officers runs out the end of December.
“The budget proposal reflects a 0 percent salary increase for all personnel as well as some accounting for potential contractual obligations,” police Chief David Mettin wrote in comments attached to the budget proposal. “As the contract has not been settled, contractual obligations in the proposal are only potential and based on my ‘best guess.’”
The budget also takes into account that the department’s administrative assistant is leaving for another job and that an officer currently off the job because of a work-related injury will remain out for a large part of next year, Mettin said. The cost of the department’s Workmen’s Compensation ,nsurance is increasing after the insurance company currently handling it decided to cancel the policy because of the department’s previous claims history, he said. The department was unsuccessful in efforts to negotiate with the current carrier or to switch to a new one and, as a last resort, will likely be signing on with a more costly state program, he said.
,n addition to the payments from the two towns, next year’s proposed budget includes a $60,000 transfer from the department’s capital reserve fund, $92,000 in state aid for pension fund payments and other income from fees and reimbursements.
The commission will formally give a final vote on the budget at its next meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, but, effectively, the department’s budget is set by the two townships’ budgets and the amount the municipalities are paying for department operations.
East Rockhill initially said it planned to budget less for the police department next year because it could no longer afford to pay that much and that cuts had already been made to other parts of the township government to deal with the ongoing tough budget years. That proposal, which was later dropped, would also have altered the current agreement under which the two towns split the operating costs of the department equally.
The two towns are also splitting equally the bill for the new police headquarters the department moved into last year. Next year, a combined $139,128 will be paid on the mortgage, $69,564 from each town.
,n another matter at the Nov. 28 meeting, Officer Harry Hallman was given a Distinguished Service Award for 25 years with the department and one of its predecessors.
Hallman was appointed to the former Sellersville Borough Police Department Nov. 23, 1987, then became part of Pennridge Regional when Sellersville, West Rockhill and East Rockhill formed the force in 1992. Sellersville has since left the regional department and now contracts with Perkasie for police coverage.
“Harry’s vast experience shows in his everyday interactions with people. He has been a fixture in the Pennridge community throughout his life, seemingly knowing everyone he comes in contact with,” Mettin said.
Hallman’s duties have included serving on the department’s Accident Reconstruction Team and as its Youth Aid Panel liaison, Mettin said.
During his 25 years on the job, Hallman has never called in sick, Mettin said — “a truly amazing accomplishment, given shiftwork and rotating shifts.”
Hallman’s years of experience also show up in the information he provides for other officers, Mettin said.
“He is like the keeper of the grail for information here,” Mettin said.
“,t’s wonderful to have those kinds of people. Wish we had more of them,” Donald Duvall, commission chairman and a West Rockhill Township Board of Supervisors member, said.