North Apollo may have no choice but to stick with Kiski Township for police coverage as alternatives dwindle and the force’s leading critic, former Mayor June Kilgore, leaves office following her resignation.
Since September, Kilgore has been asking council to consider another option for police coverage, when she raised doubts that Kiski had sufficient manpower following a string of resignations and the suspension of its police chief.
North Apollo has a $58,000 yearly protection contract with Kiski to provide police coverage. With that contract expiring at the end of the year, Kiski, along with Apollo and the Southern Armstrong Regional Police Department, submitted bids to provide police coverage to North Apollo next year and beyond.
To Kilgore’s frustration, council has yet to make a call with the year drawing to a close.
“I felt that I was getting nowhere with council,” Kilgore said. “I really didn’t want to resign, but I had to make a stand.”
Kilgore took office in 2022. When no plans were made at the Nov. 4 borough council meeting, she submitted her resignation.
North Apollo Council members Don Riggle, Rocco Ali, Ron McMunn, Marsha Dufour and Don Acker did not respond to requests for comment.
Acker, however, ardently defended council’s deliberations in a tense exchange between an official and an attendee at a recent North Apollo meeting.
“For all of you out there that seem to grumble at everything we say and everything we do, some matters need tabled because we need time to decide,” Acker said. “I am not deciding because our mayor doesn’t like the Kiski police force.”
North Apollo, which dissolved its police department almost 20 years ago, is slated to make a decision at its Dec. 2 meeting, but at least one of the three options no longer is available.
Amid bickering between North Apollo officials and residents, Chris Fabec, chief of Southern Armstrong, withdrew his three-year, combined $185,000 offer to keep “politics out of our police department.”
As for Apollo’s one-year, $90,000 proposal, that community’s officials aren’t in agreement that they can take on North Apollo given their two-officer force and ongoing hiring struggles.
That could leave Kiski, which would charge $68,000 in 2025 and $72,000 in 2026, as the most attractive — and maybe only — bidder.
Kiski officials drew the ire of Kilgore after nominally fulfilling her borough’s request for copies of past police schedules. The township complied, but the schedule provided no information about which community officers were stationed in, according to Kilgore.
“It was a mockery to me. Every day was marked in three areas: shift covered, shift covered, shift covered,” she said.
Kiski Supervisor Brittany Hilliard insisted there was never a lapse in coverage, despite recent departures from the force, and “if you call, we’re going to be there.”
North Apollo has another option on the horizon: another regional police force in Armstrong County, even as the number of participating communities shrinks.
Apollo, Kiski, Leechburg, North Apollo, Parks and West Leechburg were all in talks at one point to combine police forces. West Leechburg dropped out early on, Kiski recently removed itself from talks, and now Apollo has lost interest.
Apollo Councilman Mark Tarle said there are no hard feelings, but he and other officials have budgetary concerns.
He’s a believer that with $90,000, Apollo could muster the resources to patrol North Apollo. Apollo Councilwoman Cindy O’Block, as she has made clear, is not.
DJ Zelczak, a member of the steering committee exploring the merger, confirmed Apollo has made up its mind. North Apollo officials have remained open to the possibility, even as they scramble for a stopgap solution.
Parks and Leechburg, according to Zelczak, will forge ahead with rewriting the charter agreement that outlines details of the authority’s jurisdiction, oversight body, headquarters location and financial formula to determine what each municipality pays toward the department.
“I think one of the problems was Parks and Leechburg had been at this for quite a while, and Kiski Township and Apollo and North Apollo came into it pretty late,” Zelczak said. “So to them, it was new.
“However, if it does end up that Parks and Leechburg regionalize and it does end up those communities want to join us later, we are open to that,” he added.