North Apollo is right back where it started with police coverage after months of haggling with different departments and infighting among officials.
Kiski Township police got the nod Monday to provide protection for another two years. Kiski Township will be paid $68,000 in 2025 and $72,000 in 2026.
The decision comes despite some North Apollo officials acknowledging that recent poor communication has hindered the arrangement, which dates to 2007.
“What I don’t want to have happen again is, ‘You didn’t do things the way I wanted them to, so I’m going to take my cookies and go home,’ ” said Councilman Don Acker.
The Kiski Township police force has taken heat this year, especially from former Mayor June Kilgore, over its apparent lack of manpower following a string of resignations. Tensions were compounded when Kiski Township officials only nominally fulfilled the borough’s request for copies of past police schedules to verify service levels.
Officer-in-charge Chris Tessmer said that while he was briefly running “minimum standards” on coverage because of short staffing, the force has since reached its full complement of four patrol officers, two school resource officers and a chief — or, in this case, an acting department head.
Nonetheless, Kilgore resigned in frustration last month. Council formally accepted her letter Monday.
Chris Kerr, chief of the North Apollo Volunteer Fire Department, was appointed to serve out her term through 2025. Because Kerr is a volunteer, he’s exempt from a piece of the Pennsylvania state code that bars public safety employees from taking elected positions.
North Apollo does, however, give somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000 to the fire department each year on top of occasional assistance with major expenses. Kerr, who as mayor can cast votes only when there’s a tie on council, said he will not use his mayoral position to fight for more fire department funding.
He said he plans to be much more involved with police than fire affairs as mayor, serving as the liaison between council and Kiski Township police.
Declined options
North Apollo had alternatives for police coverage.
Apollo’s one-year, $90,000 proposal was on the table heading into Monday’s meeting, and the Southern Armstrong Regional Police Department had made — and later withdrew — a three-year, combined $185,000 offer.
Council President Don Riggle said he has “no complaints” with Kiski Township police and the other contracts left too many “unanswered questions.” The Southern Armstrong proposal, for example, included a clause that released officers from any obligations to respond to natural disasters or work community events.
Moments before North Apollo bought itself another two years of police protection, council opted out of an ongoing police regionalization effort that could have met its law enforcement needs for far longer.
With North Apollo gone, a prospective police merger in the Kiski Valley is down to Leechburg and Parks Township. West Leechburg, Kiski Township and Apollo also dropped out, in that order, over the course of the year.
An early cost estimate put North Apollo’s first-year contribution to the combined force at $114,000.
The regionalization push will continue, according to steering committee member Mary Ralston.
“Things didn’t go quite the way we wanted to, but we haven’t given up,” Ralston said. “And at any time, if things don’t work out, maybe in the future we can offer a better deal.”