Goshen Township trustees want more info on proposed K-9 unit for police
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GOSHEN TOWNSHIP -- Township trustees continued discussion of a possible K-9 unit for the Goshen Police District.
Trustees held a work session prior to their regular meeting last week in which they discussed the matter at length with Police Chief John Calko and Patrolman Steven Stanton, who proposed establishing the program in April.
The work session echoed many of the trustees' sentiments since the matter was first proposed, with trustees expressing favorable opinions on a potential program, but citing concerns regarding the cost of a K-9 program, particularly the ongoing costs of maintaining the program once it is established. Trustees and Calko both noted that in addition to the monetary costs of caring for a K-9, there are additional, less obvious costs, particularly in the case of payroll, and potentially overtime for hours Stanton would be taken away from the community.
Trustees noted that not only would Stanton be off the road for the mandatory training time, but that once a program is established there would be additional time expense from Stanton and the K-9 responding to mutual aid requests for a K-9 from other area departments. Calko said there would also have to be paid time for maintaining the K-9 at home, noting a recent lawsuit in Columbiana for the city's failure to do so.
Trustees ultimately said that they were in favor of a program but would like to see data being recorded that supports the need for the program that could be presented to potential critics of the program, as well as research into potential ongoing sources of community or grant funding before approving the program.
"I think it would be great for the public to be able to see data -- we used K-9s this many times, had positive indications this many times, this many arrests, the amount of drugs taken off the street, and also the other data, the number of times a K-9 was requested but unavailable. If you have that data to show them, I think it would help justify it," said Mesler.
It was ultimately decided that Stanton and Calko should continue laying the groundwork for the program and return to the trustees with the requested data at a later date.
Also at the meeting, trustees approved the contract for the township to provide School Resource Officer services to the West Branch School District. The contract, which was presented to and approved by the West Branch school board in its August meeting, will see the township provide two full-time officers to the district for $110,000 annually, or $55,000 per officer. This represents an increase of $20,000 per officer more than the previous agreement, which had an annual cost of $35,000 for a single officer and expired at the end of August.
Other matters for the police department included the hire of a new part-time officer, John Janacone from Boardman. Calko said that he feels Janacone can help the department with training, and that he will be a great asset for the department.
The trustees will meet next at 7 p.m. Oct. 10.