Lansford Borough Council hopes to beef up its dwindling police force after raising the pay rate for part-time officers and advertising for more full- and part-time officers.

Council raised the part-time rate from $23 an hour to $27 an hour to retain part-time officers who are seeking hours in nearby municipalities instead of Lansford.

The borough currently has four police officers, including Chief Kyle Woodward. Council tabled hiring Amie Barclay, currently a part-time officer, as a full-time officer pending Civil Service action.

Council President Bruce Markovich said officials talked about how to get more police officers and other personnel matters during a closed door, executive session before council’s meeting Wednesday night.

Council also acted on advertising for both full- and part-time officers and talked about placing a six-month online ad with the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, which the borough used previously.

Police station needed

Council also tabled action creating a bid package for converting the former Silberline corporate office building into a new police station after a debate on the potential costs to do so.

Councilwoman Michele Bartek presented colleagues with a list of things wrong with the current police station, saying that the state would likely shut them down.

Council had asked its engineer to come up with estimates on the cost of renovating the former Silberline building, which the borough owns, but no further action was taken.

Early estimates put the cost between $120,000 and $140,000, but that didn’t include the price of a heating, air conditioning and ventilation system. Markovich estimated Wednesday a total cost of at least $250,000.

Council might be better served investing that money and seeking grants for an entirely new borough building, he said.

Bartek said the borough can’t wait for grants, as the police need better facilities now.

“The quality of prisoners has gotten a lot worse (and) they don’t even have a decent place to put them,” she said. “A bench screwed into the floor isn’t what I call high security.”

Woodward told council that he would like to see some progress, pointing out that a new building anywhere in town would cost over a $1 million. Plus, a parking lot would have to be built because police can’t park on the street, the chief said.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) we had three guys downstairs on a bench that looks like it’s from the 1900s,” Woodward said, referring to the arrest of three suspects with guns and drugs in a car near the Panther Valley Stadium and a school bus stop.

There were “guns laying on a table from me to the mayor away because we have nowhere to secure them,” he said. “And no cameras in the place. It’s craziness. We’re back in the ’60s. I really want to shut the station down and then we go somewhere else.”

Woodward said that officers were interviewing a suspect in a child abuse case downstairs while a vacuum cleaner was being used upstairs during the interview.

“This stuff should not happen. This is crazy and ridiculous,” he said, expressing frustration at the lack of action since January to remedy the situation and move on a new station.

“Nothing has happened,” Woodward added. “We lose more and more cops because everyone is progressing except Lansford.”

Woodward believes the reason the department can’t hire more officers or even get applicants is the lack of progress in Lansford compared with what potential candidates see in nearby communities, such as Jim Thorpe with a new police station and Tamaqua with plans for a new station.

“Lehighton has hired three people since we advertised,” the chief told council. “Regionalize or something, because it’s not going anywhere right now.”

Woodward expressed his concerns about officer safety and security, working alone processing suspects, working long hours and having no time for proper training.

“It seems like no one cares,” he told them. “It’s at a point where somebody has got to step up to the plate.”

Woodward believes Bartek is right in pursuing the Silberline office building as a police station, saying nothing is going to be cheaper.

Bartek suggested a relative could prepare bid specifications, at no cost, for renovating the building, and council tabled action on the building to allow her to pursue the specifications.