SEVEN FIELDS — Borough council altered an ordinance responsible for the creation of the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department on Monday, Aug. 28, another step toward dissolution.

“By adopting this, you will have taken the action needed on our side to begin the dissolution of the police department,” solicitor Megan Turnbull said.

Turnbull said the ordinance was adopted in 2013 and formally established the regional police department.

“Since that time, the law has changed to allow for intergovernmental cooperation agreements to be authorized by resolutions,” she said.

The amendment to the ordinance, according to Turnbull, would allow the council “to do a number of things” as it navigates the dissolution of the regional police department.

Additionally, she said it established the council’s intention to “terminate the intergovernmental cooperation effort at its first, earliest convenience.”

This termination could occur with either the consent of the municipalities or with the approval of a higher authority, according to Turnbull.

Turnbull said the amended ordinance would also allow for supplemental coverage in the borough as it negotiates a short-term agreement with the Cranberry Township Police Department.

“It provides you the option just by recognizing that only this body, this council, can give away jurisdiction or to designate police jurisdiction,” she said.

Before the amendment of the ordinance, according to Turnbull, the power to designate police jurisdiction lied solely with the regional department.

“In order for you to truly find another another partner who could act fully as a police department, this is one of the component parts,” she said.

The ordinance also formalized the council’s stance on appropriations for the department, according to Turnbull.

“It says that we will still support it, but support it relative to its actual financial needs rather than budgeted,” she said.

Council also awarded a $123,844 contract to DiSalvatore Group for renovations to the municipal building’s facade.

“The storefront for this building, the new window and canopy, as you’re aware, we bid it twice,” said John Balewski, borough engineer. “We got no bids, so we were able to negotiate with anybody we wanted to.”

The borough then received two additional bids before ultimately choosing to work with the DiSalvatore Group.

Balewski said the project would improve the building’s canopy as well as its leaking glass windows.

“It’s going to be November, probably early November, before the glass shows up,” he said. “But we can maybe get it done before the end of the year.”

The award came with the caveats that the contractor would agree to pay the state’s prevailing wages, provide performance and payments bonds, and eliminate a 48% deposit from the contract.

“Once they get the glass, it’s less than two weeks,” Balewski said.

Borough manager Tom Smith also received approval for a $2,155 software to replace existing software in the front doors of the community center.

“Somehow, someway it got a virus,” Smith said.

The corrupted software had caused the doors to malfunction, he said, necessitating the purchase.

“When we have community center rentals, we have a software that, say you rented it, we’re able to put in your rental times and it opens up the door automatically,” Smith said. “So it’s keyless.”