Politics

Ellwood City Borough Council will vote on a motion to advertise for a full-time patrol officer at its regular meeting next Monday. The motion was added to the agenda at Monday’s agenda meeting after a discussion. [Correction 12 a.m.: The motion will advertise the position, not hire an officer.] The police department currently has one lieutenant, one sergeant, eight full-time patrol officers and one part-time patrol officer. Council member Judi Dici started the discussion with statistics concerning overtime rates for the police department. According to numbers read by Dici, overtime costs for January through March are $42,606.84. According to borough…

In December 2015, council passed a motion to change the police schedule. That motion, proposed by former council member Ralph Chiappetta, was approved unanimously but was never implemented. In a letter to the Ellwood City Ledger, Chiappetta stated he believed the schedule change would save $50,000 in overtime a year. However, Mayor Anthony J. Court, who is in charge of the police department, believes it would not save money and may even increase police costs. Chiappetta has visited council several times to ask them to enforce the motion with a Writ of Mandamus, although at the meeting on March 21…

At Monday’s meeting, the Ellwood City borough council struck down a motion to advertise for a part-time patrol officer. An alternative, hiring a full-time officer, was discussed but no decisions were made as council wished to research the matter further. Council member Marilyn Mancini first brought up her reluctance to hire a part-time officer, pointing out that recently council approved two part-time officers, neither of which committed to the positions. In addition, the borough paid for tests for one of the candidates amounting to over $700. She added that Lt. David Kingston, the police department’s ranking officer, advised that part-timers…

The Ellwood City council is encouraging residents to sign up for Code RED emergency notification system alerts. The program alerts residents of area-wide emergencies, such as severe storm warnings. Participants may choose between landline, cell phone and text message options. However, residents must first be enrolled in the program. The borough website has a page for online registration. In addition, the borough will send out notifications in the mail with the option to register via paper. The description of Code RED registration from the borough website reads, “The secure, customized Community Notification Enrollment (CNE) page allows residents and businesses to…

The following is a brief summary of the Ellwood City Borough Council meeting on Monday, March 21. Announcements There will be a special council meeting Thursday, March 24 at 8 a.m. to approve renovation plans for the rear of the Municipal Building. Picnic shelter reservations will begin on March 28 for non-Borough residents. There will be a Young Republicans debate on April 6 at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building auditorium. The Ellwood City Police Department will have a drug take back program for unused or expired medication on April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Municipal…

A building on Lawrence Avenue caused disagreement during Monday’s borough agenda meeting. The building in question is on 509 Lawrence Ave., which the borough owns. The building used to house the Ellwood City Newsstand and has been deemed unfeasible for repair. Since the building can’t easily be put to use, President Connie MacDonald felt the building should be torn down. At best, a developer may buy it and at worse, it can be used as a parking lot. Vice President David DeCaria disagreed and backed himself with advice from Town Center Associates, a Beaver-based consulting firm advising Ellwood City on…