Central City Borough Council proposes policing agreement

Dave Sutor, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

Sep. 28—CENTRAL CITY, Pa. — Central City Borough Council proposed an agreement on Tuesday that could eventually lead to the municipality providing police services for Shade-Central City School District.

The process is expected to take several weeks to complete due to multiple agencies being involved.

"(The proposal) would lead to an intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the three bodies — Shade Township, Shade-Central City School District and Central City Borough — that would allow for some police coverage at the (high) school, even though it's in Shade Township," Central City Borough Council Solicitor Ben Carroll said.

Carroll explained the steps that still need to "come together at some point."

"There's the agreement that has to be approved by the Central City Borough and Shade-Central City School District," Carroll said. "That's the meat of what you're really talking about. In addition to that, though, both the borough has to pass an intergovernmental cooperation ordinance and Shade Township has to pass its intergovernmental cooperation ordinance. And, down the road, the school district would, this is my opinion ... have a resolution approving the fact that those ordinances allow for all the rest of everything else."

Shade provided police protection to the school district until the township dissolved its part-time department in 2021, citing cost concerns.

Central City approved reinstating its part-time police force last year.

"When Central City Borough started a police department, we decided, as a school district, with our board, that we wanted to partner with Central City Borough to provide coverage for the district," Shade- Central City High School Principal Sean Wechtenhiser said.

"That definitely helps with the safety and security of our students and staff for events and, if we can, during the school day."

The tentative agreement proposed by the borough calls for the district to pay $50 per hour for the work officers would do specifically at the school, separate from their usual duties. The district would request coverage at certain times.

"To begin with, we would pick out bigger sports events, bigger events at the school," Wechtenhiser said.

"We talked also about the possibility of some daily walkthroughs here and there as they're available."