Ashland council provides update on regional police effort
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The sign for Ashland Police at Ashland Borough Hall.
ASHLAND – Work is progressing on creating a regional police force for Ashland, Gordon, and Butler Township.
Ashland and Butler Township approved the creation of steering committees for the effort in September, which could see their departments combine. Gordon contracts with Butler Township for police coverage currently.
Councilman Adam Bernodin is Ashland’s representative in the effort and provided an update at Wednesday’s borough council meeting.
“It’s going to take the whole year to get this done,” Bernodin said.
“If we’re lucky,” Solicitor Jack Price said.
Bernodin said agreements and contracts need to be sorted out first, and grant funding may be needed as well.
Ashland Police Chief Gerald Daley said a meeting is set for Monday with a consultant, who is chief of a recently-formed regional police force.
Guidelines for the new department are being drawn up and revised, which Bernodin said he reviewed and is providing notes to Daley.
Bernodin was Ashland’s police chief for several decades before retiring from that post. He is now a patrolman for the Shenandoah Borough Police Department, assigned to the Shenandoah Valley School District.
Bernodin also mentioned that, if a building is needed for the force, “we don’t have the money.”
Daley said grants for regional police forces are being given in abundance.
“They want this to happen,” Daley said. “One of the departments that just formed was given an old state police barracks and got a grant to redo the entire building.”
“They’re handing out to redo old buildings, they’re handing out to build new buildings,” Daley said. “There’s apparently quite a lot of grant money available for this. This is a huge push right now in the state for people to do this.”
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