Members of Palo Alto Borough Council believe crime is on the rise and what they’re getting in police protection right now isn’t cutting it.
For the last five years, Palo Alto has gotten police coverage through an inter-municipal agreement with Port Carbon and Mechanicsville, two other boroughs that border Pottsville.
And while borough officials in Palo Alto believe the arrangement worked pretty well in their favor initially, lately it’s been less than stellar.
Now, they want more. On Monday, Borough Council members voted unanimously to authorize their Solicitor, Eric Prock, to negotiate a deal to get Saint Clair to provide police coverage starting in 2025.
Palo Alto Wants Saint Clair Police Coverage
That arrangement between Palo Alto and Saint Clair won’t come cheaply, especially compared to what the borough has been paying for the agreement with Port Carbon and Mechanicsville.
And in order to buy into Saint Clair’s coverage, Palo Alto likely will have to enter into a 10-year contract with the other borough for police protection.
Under the terms of the deal that will still need to be negotiated and finalized, Palo Alto will likely have to pay $138,000 in the first year with Saint Clair. That price increases 5% each year over the previous year’s price.
So, by 2034, Palo Alto will be on the hook for slightly more than $200,000 for the year for this switch in coverage.
Here is a chart showing the estimated costs to Palo Alto over the next 10 years, calculating a 5% increase year-over-year.
| Year | Cost ($) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 130,000.00 |
| 2026 | 136,500.00 |
| 2027 | 143,325.00 |
| 2028 | 150,491.25 |
| 2029 | 158,015.81 |
| 2030 | 165,916.60 |
| 2031 | 174,212.43 |
| 2032 | 182,923.05 |
| 2033 | 192,069.21 |
| 2034 | 201,672.67 |
Should a deal between the boroughs not get finalized, Palo Alto officials can look at the prospect of another year with Port Carbon at the helm.
Another deal on the table for providing police coverage from Port Carbon would cost Palo Alto a minimum of $78,200 for the first two years. In the third year of that proposed contract, the cost to Palo Alto would be about $80,000.
Round-the-clock Coverage
One of the main reasons Palo Alto council members say they want St. Clair police coverage is due to the 24-7-365 availability of them.
The borough is not getting that under its current agreement with Port Carbon and Mechanicsville, they said Monday.
Council President Brian Dries said, “Public safety is our main goal.”
Dries blamed an “influx of people” into the area as the reason for the rising crime.
“The thing that kills this county is there are four jails,” Dries said.
Councilman Charles Dries Sr. said Monday, “We have not seen a police vehicle in how long.”
Speaking to the perceived lack of visibility of the inter-municipal force in which Palo Alto is a member, Councilwoman Joan Stevenosky said, “If we don’t have protection, who is going to want to live here? I want to see the police in this town.”
Members of council also said they’d visited Saint Clair since they started talking about this prospect in June and were impressed with that department’s technology and capabilities.
Port Carbon Agreement Fizzled Over Time
Nearly all council members said the borough’s relationship with Port Carbon over the inter-municipal police agreement started fine but has grown distant in the last five years.
They weren’t sure who to blame for that but made sure to note that they’re not blaming Port Carbon Police Chief Joe Ferraro.
“There was not a lot of meetings between us and Port Carbon,” President Dries said.
Mayor John Deatrich said, “We had certain benchmarks we wanted to reach. That never happened. It’s not happening.”
The mayor also said that there’s very little, if any communication between he and Port Carbon.
“We held up our end of the deal and no one else did,” Deatrich said. “No offense to Joe … this started out good but he doesn’t have the force.”
Stevenosky echoed that sentiment by saying, “I think Joe has a really hard line to pull.”
The Money
Another major concern of Palo Alto council members was the added cost of going with St. Clair over its current arrangement.
That extra $50,000 a year in the first year and more as the deal progresses isn’t growing on trees and council members expressed concerns about how they’re going to pay for it.
“I’m just worried about the money,” Councilwoman Patricia Schaeffer said.
She isn’t alone, despite all eventually voting to go forward with negotiations with Saint Clair.
Councilman Chris Rowan did the math and noticed that in the final year of the proposed contract with Saint Clair, Palo Alto would be on the hook for more than $200,000.
“We have to prove how we’re going to pay for this,” he said.
Dries Sr. said he was concerned about the length of the proposed contract, wishing it could be less than a 10-year deal.
President Dries said that Saint Clair, at least initially, was immovable on that number.
He admitted that taxes will likely have to go up. But he also said that Palo Alto had budgeted for about $120,000 in police expenses in 2024 so that initial hit may not be as hard to handle.
Councilman Vince Riotto said, “We’ll have to button up. That’s all.”
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