Renovo Regional Police: Not This Time
RENOVO — Regional police for the Renovo area, talked about and studied last fall, won’t be happening anytime soon.
Governmental representatives from Renovo, South Renovo and Chapman and Noyes Township gathered in Renovo last November and heard a report from the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services. That state agency presented a plan for a regional police force with an estimated cost of $238,000.
Seven months later there has been no action taken on the regional concept. Ron Stern, local government policy manager for the Governor’s Center, told The Record this week he has received nothing back from the western Clinton County communities. He said, “I haven’t heard anything from them, but that doesn’t mean they might not want to follow up in the future.”
But mayors from Renovo and South Renovo have confirmed that there is no longer any discussion about a regional force. South Renovo Mayor Bob Cozzi did say his borough has signed a contract with Renovo for coverage from Renovo’s one-man force.
South Renovo since the first of the year has been paying $1,250 a month for the borough officer to patrol town several times a day and be on call as needed, this according to Mayor Cozzi. He said there is no set time for the patrols and no reports required, but the arrangement gives South Renovo residents a level of safety they did not have over the last few years after a previous agreement with Renovo had lapsed.
Renovo Mayor Carl Olshefski, relative to the regional police proposal, said “Everybody wants something for nothing,” indicating that the municipal representatives liked the concept of regional coverage, but not at the price to be paid.
Asked about the prospect of hundreds of workers descending on Renovo during the approaching construction phase of the Renovo Energy Center (currently scheduled for a construction start in the second quarter of next year), Olshefski said he would like to see more funding made available for police protection in Renovo.
Harrisburg’ Stern last November had recommended a Renovo area regional police force consisting of a chief, a fulltime officer and four part-time patrolmen.
The consultant presented a possible operating budget of $238,000 for 2017 but emphasized “it is what you want, what fits, what you can afford.” The state representatives said it would be up to the participating municipalities to determine how the operating costs would be divided up, utilizing factors such as population, road mileage, assessed value and general fund revenue.
Presently Renovo is the only western Clinton County municipality with a police force, consisting of one, officer in charge Mike Jeffries. The borough spent nearly $85,000 for police services in 2015, the other municipalities zero, according to the report. That has changed with South Renovo again linking up with Renovo to utilize Jeffries’ service.
Stern told the assemblage in November that if the communities want to proceed, paper work could be completed in “a couple months.” He said the local officials should take a couple weeks to “digest” the information and meet again to further consider the regionalization concept. But for now the issue is dead.
