Three months after disbanding its local police department, Cass Township supervisors voted Thursday night to advertise a job listing looking for a new Police Chief.
Supervisors chairwoman Brenda Helt said after the vote to advertise the position was taken, “We heard the people complaining. We’re going to move forward and we’re going to do what we can do.”
Helt said that this decision to staff a new police department would be for a “full-time police department” but it would start with a full-time police chief.
“That’s what people want and people are saying they don’t care if taxes get raised, so we’re going to advertise it and see what it’s going to cost,” Helt said.
The township figures it’ll cost in the neighborhood of $100,000 just for the full-time police chief.
According to Helt, the township most recently budgeted $89,000 for its police. She said that Cass Township doesn’t have an exact figure on how much it’ll cost to hire a full-time chief and that the vote to advertise the position is to see what’s available.
When Helt said that “people are saying they don’t care if taxes get raised” she’s at least partly referencing an informal poll taken at the July supervisors meeting when that topic was raised.
Asking for a show of hands who would be willing to pay more in taxes to support a Cass Township police department, a strong majority of the dozen or so people in attendance raised their hand.
The vote to disband the previous police department in Cass Township happened on May 30. That decision followed a vote to suspend the police force in February 2024 after Solicitor Mark Semanchik informed the public that the township learned that a form was filed with a state government department from a person that was believed to have resigned from the police department prior to filing that form.
It’s still not been revealed what form that was and to which department it was allegedly filed. The township said it was investigating that issue.
In addition to that investigation, it was also revealed that $575 in cash was allegedly missing from the police evidence room. Implications from the Solicitor were that police were involved in that misplaced money.
Semanchik and supervisors claimed that the police evidence room was always locked and no one but officers ever had access.
Soon after the police department was disbanded in May, a detective with the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office was able to locate the supposedly missing money.
Later on Thursday, Helt said, “I”m pro-police. We had an issue and we had to take care of it. Now, we’re going to move forward. We’re going to advertise for the chief and see where it takes us. Our issues are cleared up here so we’re going to move forward.”
After Thursday’s meeting, Helt said the supervisors haven’t discussed the possibility of contracting with Minersville Police Department to provide the coverage they’re seeking.
Supervisors also haven’t entered into talks with Foster Township on it providing police coverage to the part of Highridge Business Park that’s located in Cass Township.
FULL COVERAGE …
Check out these headlines that appeared on Coal Region Canary in 2024 regarding the ongoing Cass Township police issue:
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