EVANS CITY — The new Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department is a step closer.

Both communities approved a charter agreement on Wednesday that establishes a police board of two representatives from each municipality’s council.

Seven Fields manager Tom Smith said the police board, which first met Wednesday, will meet at 5:15 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at the Seven Fields Borough Building on Castle Creek Drive. The meetings will be public.

Evans City council President Kim Armstrong is the board chairman with Jen Sikora of the Seven Fields council as vice chairman. Ed Tanski of Evans City is secretary and Bob Messina of Seven Fields is treasurer.

Smith said new officers will be elected in January each year, which means the board will reorganize in January 2014.

The board’s initial task, Smith said, will be to hire a solicitor, an insurance carrier, and a pension attorney.

It will also create a 2014 budget, which Smith said will be small until the regional police force actually takes effect in January 2015.

“It’s going to take that much time to plan and get everything else in order,” Smith said.

Currently, Evans City has its own police while Seven Fields contracts with Cranberry Township. That contract runs out at the end of 2014.

Regarding shared funding for the new police force, Smith said Seven Fields will pay 53 percent and Evans City 47 percent of costs. He said the funding is based on population per miles of road, and will be recalculated in five years.

“The numbers should stay about the same because Evans City is not going to grow anymore and Seven Fields is not going to grow anymore,” Smith said.

Armstrong said the regional police department will be a boon to both communities through cost-savings and increased coverage. She said while there is no way of knowing what the regional force’s budget will be when it is established in January 2015, it will be less than the amount Evans City is paying now for its own police force.

She said Evans City in 2012 spent about $273,000, or 34 percent of the $853,000 budget’s general fund, on the police force. She expects the amount to be about the same this year.

Seven Fields spent $337,000 of its $1.1 million 2012 budget on police services from Cranberry Township. It also committed $50,000 toward the new regional police force in the 2013 budget.

She said Evans City residents who worry that officers will have to come from Seven Fields in the event of an emergency need to know that one officer will be at a satellite police station in Seven Fields from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., while another officer will remain in Evans City.

The officer working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift will cover both communities, Armstrong said.

According the website mapquest.com, the two boroughs are 7.6 miles apart if traveling Myoma Road to Route 228, and 9 miles via Mars-Evans City Road to Route 228.

Armstrong said while the Evans City police will provide most of the cars and equipment for the new regional police force, Seven Fields will buy a police SUV. It also will outfit the satellite station there.

Armstrong said the exact location for the satellite has not been determined, but it will be in a building owned by Seven Fields. She added, “This is a new adventure for both of us, so if things need to be adjusted, we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Armstrong encouraged residents of both boroughs to understand that the new police force will be mutually beneficial.

“Once people see what’s going to go on, they will appreciate that it’s a positive move for both municipalities,” she said.