The Slatington borough council hired a new police chief Monday night during their regular monthly meeting.

Slatington area resident Dennis Long, a retired lieutenant in the Pennsylvania State Police, will be stepping in as the new police chief. Long has 29 years of experience in law enforcement with the state police department.

“He’s extremely well-qualified,” said borough Manager Daniel Stevens in an interview.

Long replaces David Rachman, who left in January. Rachman had been the police chief since 2006.

“We worked a long time to get a new police chief,” said Mayor Jeralyn Walters Schoch. “It’s been a long seven months for us. We’re excited for him.”

The search for a new police chief was a two-step process with a committee of people including the mayor, a couple council members and the borough manager to select about 10 candidates of interest.

The next step was to give those candidates to a second committee of people from law enforcement to go through, interview, and make a recommendation to the borough council.

Mayor Schoch said Long has a great background in law enforcement, as well as in community involvement.

“That’s what we’re looking for, someone who is very community oriented and that is him,” she said. “I know our guys in the police force are excited to get started working with him. It’s a new direction for us, and he’s going to be a great asset to our community.”

Long said his first day with the Slatington Police Department will be in about two weeks. There are a series of the pre-employment checks that are almost completed.

He said he knows the former police chief and is friends with him. When the position became available, Long said he thought it would be a good way to combine his career with his community. He has a large family in the area and this is home.

“When it came up, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to go back to my roots and be in law enforcement, something I always wanted to do since I was 14 years old,” he said.

Long said he knows the police department has been short-handed for a while, but he commends all the work the officers have been doing in providing police service to the community and commends Sergeant Deron Dorwood for his work as interim police chief.

Long said he’s met many of the officers and has even worked with some of them through his work with the state police department.

“In talking to them, they’re young and energetic. They’re here for the right reasons. I’m excited to see that and I can’t wait to start working with them to continue to move our department in the right direction,” Long said.