Irwin’s police department has new replacements for two part-time officers who left the force last month.
Borough council on Wednesday hired Kyle Morton of Yukon as a full-time officer at a rate of $25.62 an hour, plus benefits. Cole Bertok of Jeannette was hired as a part-time officer at a rate of $23.80 an hour.
Officers Tom Carnahan and Erik Berg resigned from Irwin’s police force in February to take other jobs. Chief Dan Wensel said that Berg had not started his job with the police department when he resigned.
With the new hirings, the borough now has four full-time officers plus the chief and four part-timers, Wensel said.
With the resignations of both officers last month, Wensel said last week the department’s personnel level “is fine, as of today.”
The police department also was authorized to buy a tent at a cost of no more than $1,000.
The tent could serve as a command post in the event of emergencies or be erected during times of special events in the town. The tent would have the borough’s logo on it.
In attempt to resolve a problem with the borough’s street signs that don’t have reflective lettering and are designed in different styles, council authorized Gibson Thomas Engineering of Latrobe to apply to the Commonwealth Financing Authority for a local share grant of revenue from the Live! Casino gambling facility in Hempfield.
Replacing the signs in the borough could cost about $100,000, said Shari Martino, borough secretary.
Alleys in the borough are named but don’t have signs, also will get signs if the request for funding is approved, Martino said.
Martino said she does not anticipate that Irwin will learn whether its application is approved until November.
The legislative delegations of both House and Senate members representing Westmoreland County will meet this fall to review the applications for money from the local share of the gambling revenue, which amounts to about 1% of revenue generated by the casino, said State Rep. George Dunbar, R-Penn Township. There is about $1.5 million-to- $2 million available to allocate, Dunbar said.
A spokesperson for the Commonwealth Financing Authority, an independent agency of the Department of Commerce and Economic Development, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
