Evans City may seek police coverage from Jackson Township
EVANS CITY — A stormy 10-year marriage apparently came to an end on Monday night, as Evans City began seeking a new partner to provide law enforcement services for the borough after the seemingly inevitable dissolution of its partnership with Seven Fields.
As of press time Monday night, borough council was in executive session discussing the possibility of striking an agreement with Jackson Township to provide police services to the borough. The most recent deal would have Evans City trade a piece of property near its reservoir so Jackson Township could turn it into a community park.
Nothing had been finalized as of Monday night. However, sources within Jackson Township are optimistic of a positive outcome.
“We have been openly discussing the concept of procuring or giving them consideration for the purchase of their old reservoir property on (Route) 528 as part of the exchange,” said Jackson Township manager Chris Rearick. “There would exist the potential for the township to commit its resources to develop it into an active public park available to residents of both communities.”
According to borough council president Cheri Deener, the marriage between Evans City and Seven Fields started to fall apart during the past two years, but there were signs of struggle from the very beginning.
“If everybody would have read the information when it first started, it should have been immediate,” Deener said. “Nobody wants to work together and come up with a better solution to our problem.”
As of Monday, the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department was down to only two full-time employees. It once had 18.
One of those employees is Joseph McCombs, the chief of police, who entered the meeting at around 8 p.m. to notify the board of the happenings at the Seven Fields meeting. The Evans City council, police and library all share the same building.
“It wasn’t a workable department,” McCombs said. “I think Evans City kind of had their hand forced by some of (Seven Fields') behaviors and discussions. I think they kind of forced our hand a little bit.”
In late June, Evans City conducted a study and found the working relationship between itself and Seven Fields was unworkable for many reasons. One of those reasons was the even number of voting representatives on the commission — three each from Evans City and Seven Fields — and no provision for what to do in case of a tie vote.
At a special meeting Monday night, Seven Fields formally began the process of dissolving the Evans City/Seven Fields Police Department, which had been formed by charter in 2013. Seven Fields has also begun entering discussions with Cranberry Township to provide supplemental police service.
