With Cass Township Police Dept. now disbanded, it leaves a significant portion of the Highridge Business Park without local police protection.
Foster Township may be the one to step in and provide that coverage. But in order for that to happen, Cass Township officials will have to agree to it and someone will have to pay Foster Township for its services.
Now, at its last monthly meeting, Cass Township supervisors were dumping on their now-disbanded police department. Part of that lengthy and very open discussion focused on how the police department allegedly hadn’t patrolled Highridge in years.
But in just a few weeks without Cass Township having its own police department, Highridge officials are wondering who can provide local police coverage there.
If Foster Township were to agree to essentially lend its police department to the Cass Township portion of Highridge, the bill would likely be paid by either the Schuylkill Economic Development Corp. (SEDCO) or the Highridge Improvement District Authority (HIDA), Solicitor Ed Brennan told supervisors at their Aug. 7 meeting.
Brennan told Foster Township supervisors that if they’re interested in possibly providing coverage to the Cass Township portion of Highridge, they should have Chief Jim Nettles run a cost analysis that can be taken to the organization or authority that would eventually pay the township for its services.
But before Foster could do any routine patrols of the Cass portion of Highridge, even if the other township isn’t paying for it, an inter-municipal agreement between the two townships would have to be signed, Brennan said.
Brennan said he spoke with Cass Township Solicitor Mark Semanchik and indicated that the neighboring municipality would at least be open to the discussions. But the first step would likely involve Foster Township – including Nettles and Supervisors Chairman John Barrett – speaking with SECDO President Frank Zukas regarding the funding.
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