The Homer City Borough council adopted a hazard plan and hired a new part-time police officer at Tuesday night’s meeting. Also, the chief of police spoke of the need for a new vehicle for the force, as well as recent crimes that are unusual for the borough.
The council adopted the Indiana County 2018 Hazard Mitigation Plan on a motion by Kal Cecconi.
The council also approved the hiring of Hunter Scherf as a new part time police officer. According to police chief Anthony Jellison, Scherf is a graduate of the IUP Police Academy and currently works for Saltsburg Borough.
Jellison also addressed the council with the need for a new police vehicle. The force’s Dodge was blowing black smoke and is awaiting an engine replacement. After it is repaired, Jellison hopes to eventually trade it in toward something that can replace the current K9 vehicle, which is blowing white smoke. The force’s third vehicle is running for now, but Jellison says it needs air conditioning:
“We’re putting refrigerant in it to try and maintain safety for the officers, but that’s getting costly now.”
The council chose to table the discussion until next month’s meeting to look further into its finances.
Jellison also reported recent “oddball” crimes that he says are unusual within the borough.
“By ‘oddball’ I mean extraordinary, like extortion. When we have extortion cases that we never deal with around here, and some other crimes like that that, you know, just all the sudden started coming up.”
No further information on these cases is available as investigations are ongoing.
