Manor Township Police are now patrolling Burrell Township. Another municipality, Bethel Township, is expected to sign an agreement with Manor on Tuesday.
MANOR - Manor and Burrell townships officially entered into a covenant regarding police protection.
Burrell Township supervisors William T. Headley, Ronald K. Shellhammer, and David F. Kunkle previously approved a contract with Manor. Manor supervisors Paul Rearick, Robert Q. Southworth, and Donald W. Palmer, Jr. ratified it at their meeting last night.
The agreement specifically states that Manor Township Police will answer and respond to all 911 telephone calls made from within the boundaries of Burrell. It also states that Manor will conduct routine traffic patrol as well.
Manor is also waiting on final signatures next Tuesday from Bethel Township supervisors to provide police protection. The agreement is expected to be approved by both townships.
The agreement spells out a rate of $25 per hour until a maximum tab of $500 per month is reached. Once the $500 limit is reached in a given month, Manor will cease answering and responding to 911 calls for Burrell residents and the responsibility will be shifted back to Pennsylvania State Police. The agreement stipulates that there will be no carryover of funds to the following month. Any and all fines collected from citations issued as a result of traffic patrols in Burrell Township will be deposited directly into the Burrell police fund.
The agreements are for an initial four-month period, giving all municipalities involved the ability to analyze the effectiveness of the new relationship.
To accomplish the task of adding the two additional municipalities, Manor supervisors approved the hiring of five new part-time police officers last night.
Since the Burrell agreement took effect today, Chief Eric Petrosky said Manor officers were ready to respond to incident calls beginning at midnight.
“All the township supervisors in Bethel, Burrell, and Manor, are working together to better their townships without raising taxes by bringing in police coverage. They are going to work with Manor. If they have a problem, they are going to let us know. (If we have an issue) we are going to let them know. And it’s all going to be a team effort. It’s not going to be one individual running the whole show. The three supervisors from Burrell, the three from Bethel, and the three from Manor will all be involved.”
Petrosky said the partnership between the municipalities will result in overall increased police presence and have a positive impact in fighting crime in the region.