HARRISVILLE — The borough's budget highlights a new plan for its police department.

Borough council adopted a 2019 budget at its Dec. 3 meeting that doesn't raise taxes. Revenue is estimated at $152,785 and expenditures at $149,135.

April Anschutz, council president, said the $3,650 cushion could come in handy for a council filled by many new faces.

“We were anxious to see how we were going to be after this budget,” Anschutz said. “I think we are off to a good start.”

Anticipated spending for the police department is expected to decrease from $54,505 to $49,700, according to the budget.

Anschutz said the borough has relied heavily on one main officer who would work around 80 hours per month. She said the borough also has two part-time officers who offer support or handle any overflow of hours.

The primary officer is tapering off his schedule with the department to focus more hours on his primary job, and the borough is hoping to find a fourth part-time officer to help cover those hours, according to Anschutz.

“We're hoping to get another officer in 2019,” she said. “We want to have four — three officers and a chief.”

The borough will have some other changes to its employee list.

The sanitation and engineering employee resigned in November, so the council decided to transition the borough's two seasonal maintenance workers to year-round employees, according to Anschutz.

Anschutz said the two maintenance workers have already been taking over the new sanitation responsibilities, and will be paid from some of the money set aside for sanitation in the budget to compensate for the extra hours.

“It kind of off balances what we would have paid our sanitation and engineering employee,” she said.

Anschutz said finishing the first budget gives the council members confidence going into the future. She said they are hoping to apply for more grant money as projects arise.

A community development block grant, which was about $120,000, was used for last year's sidewalk project.

“We really want to get more grants into our community, rather than raise taxes,” Anschutz said. “We want to see more money come up north.”