Tamaqua asks West Penn for regional police input

Is there a move afoot to establish what would become Eastern Schuylkill Regional Police?

Or maybe Schuylkill-Carbon Regional Police?

At Monday's meeting of the West Penn Township board of supervisors, member James Akins acknowledged receipt of a letter from Tamaqua Borough government, asking for the township's input into a grant application to study the idea of a regional police force.

Akins explained the project as being akin to a few other joint ventures which the township had considered, one which the township approved and one which the township found not so favorable.

"It would be similar to partnering with the ESRC (Eastern Schuylkill Recreation Commission) and ESP (Eastern Schuylkill Planning).

Akins said the township found the ESRC to be to its liking, but not so the ESP proposal.

The bottom line, though, is "we're not committing to anything," Akins explained.

The concept is just that, an initial move to gauge interest among the municipalities around the Tamaqua area.

It was not made clear which other municipalities might have been approached, but Akins said, "They would like to get all municipalities surrounding Tamaqua involved. They only need two."

Among topics to be discussed, said Akins, would be issues such as "How strong is your police department? How strong is your coverage?"

After brief discussion, the board unanimously agreed to sign a letter of intent to pursue a DCED grant to study the concept.