Hartville residents voice support for keeping police department, leasing new building

HARTVILLE − Many of the roughly 100 residents on hand made their views clear during Wednesday night's public meeting on the future of the village's police department.

They want the village to keep its police department and not to outsource services to Uniontown.

But they don't want the village to spend about $1.5 million to expand Village Hall to renovate the current police headquarters. Most seem to favor the plan to lease space in a building for the police for $76,000 a year, which Council Member Jim Sullivan said will be taken from money previously allocated for paving as voters have voted down tax increases seven times the past eight years.

And most of the village's seven council members said they also are leaning toward the lease option they called option one.

Residents speak in favor of keeping Hartville police

The roughly two-hour meeting took place in Lake High School's cafeteria.

Numerous residents spoke passionately about situations where the village police force had positively impacted their families. One woman said that decades ago George Dragovitch, when he was the village's police chief, saved her grandfather's life when he had a heart attack. Another woman said her employees feel safe walking to their cars at night because they know the Hartville police officers are nearby.

One mother said a Hartville police officer came to the aid of her teen who had a flat tire. A business owner asked how long would he have to wait for police if his alarm went off if police services were outsourced. Residents who made impassioned calls to keep the police department intact got widespread applause.

Council member Jim Sullivan, chairman of council's safety committee, began the meeting by presenting the options.

The e-commerce company NorthEast Ohio Fulfillment Center or Neofill had offered to lease about 6,000 square feet to the police department in its building at 650 S. Prospect Avenue. That's a little less than about half of the floor size. The cost would be $75,000 a year during a 10-year lease. The rent would include gas and electricity. The building also has additional vacant space, allowing the police station to grow.

Hartville police department's cramped offices

Police Lt. Kevin Moore, the village's interim police chief, said the cramped station at Village Hall does not have its own bathroom, so officers must use Village Hall's restrooms. And there's no space to hold detainees before transporting them to the Stark County Jail.

"We have to hold it or call an officer to assist before we can take care of our personal needs," said Moore.

More:Kevin Moore named interim Hartville police chief

Leasing new space would give the police officers more space, their own private restroom and an area to hold people they've arrested. The disadvantage is the village would not be building equity with its lease payment. And Hartville would not have any guarantees after the 10 years.

The second option is to expand Village Hall, renovate and build a new police station within the refurbished space. The village would own the space and wouldn't have to pay rent. The downside is a $1.5 million price tag, a cost few at the meeting seemed willing to stomach. And during construction, village employees would have to temporarily relocate.

John Elsey of GBC Design presented a proposed floor plan for the new police station, which would be about 3,000 square feet and have a holding cell.

Sullivan said the Hartville police department has a budget of about $1.3 million a year, eight full-time police officers and five part-time officers.

The third option is to disband the police department and outsource police services to the nearby Uniontown Police Department. To maintain current service of two police officers per shift, Uniontown police would hire roughly 10 police officers to provide two officers per shift at a cost of $1.3 million per year to the village or one officer per shift at a cost of about $725,000.

Lake Township Trustee Jeremy Yoder said the township would do whatever is necessary to support the village.

More meeting comments

Sean Gordon, of Lake Township, was among the few at the meeting supporting outsourcing police services to Uniontown Police.

"Hartville does not have the money for an expansion when they can work with Uniontown," Gordon said. "It just does not make sense financially. ... It's a waste of taxpayer dollars."

The meeting attendees who had applauded for other speakers were silent when Gordon walked away from the podium.

Dean Windham, of Marlboro Township, who grew up in Hartville, said people moving into the area want good schools and good security.

"I don't think people should have to choose between asphalt and security," he said.

Monica Goodspeed, of Hartville, said it is time for residents to call for council members' resignations for not addressing the police station situation for years.

"We are sleeping in peace because of our police department," she said. "Anyone on council who thinks removing our police is a good option needs to be removed."

Keelan Moore, a business owner who lives in Hartville, said the times she called Hartville police, officers responded immediately. She said it was not safe to have only one officer working in Hartville per shift.

"The option of getting rid of the police department. Come on! Why's that even on the table?" she asked.

Later in the meeting, Tim Hayden, a business owner who says he'll run for council next year and opposes disbanding the police force, invited eight village police officers in uniform to join him at the podium as the attendees loudly applauded.

Council member Steve Reisch said he wants to keep the police department. But with voters seven times rejecting tax increases, including a rise in the income tax rate or eliminating the credit for village residents who pay income taxes to other cities where they work, the village has to find a way to cut expenses.

"It's nothing against the police," he said. "It's simply numbers."

At the end of the meeting, Mayor Cindy Billings and council members Shari Chambers, Ben Ohler, Jim Sullivan and Frank Gant said they favored the lease option. Council member Bev Green said she needed more time to decide. And Reisch said he'd like to see the issue go to voters on the ballot so they could decide whether the village should keep its police department.

Gant said council would likely make a decision at its Nov. 28 meeting.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hartville residents speak in favor of keeping police department