August 1 – The Chambersburg Borough Council met last night where a police officer was sworn in – again.
Dan Signore was a member of the force a few years ago. He has moved back into the area again and returned to the Chambersburg Police Department last night.
Allen Coffman, borough council president, said, “With some changes that were made in the Civil Service Commission rules, he was able to come back without going through all the Act 120 training again, in which he is fully trained as a police officer. So we’re glad to have him back, good officer. He was over in the York area working for the DA’s office over there. So he wasn’t out of the law enforcement work while he was away from here. He continued to do law enforcement work, but nevertheless, we’re glad he’s back.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM noted, “That’s good news and you talk about all the time and money invested in training and getting him part of the department. So he goes right into the job. You couldn’t ask for a better outcome.”
“His first official day is today,” Coffman said.
Also last night, council passed an ordinance that concerned people sleeping in their cars on public streets.
Coffman said, “I don’t know that it’s been a problem, but it’s something we’ve wanted to have an ordinance in place if it even became a problem. So it forbids people from sleeping in cars, their cars or a trailer or whatever, on public streets between the hours of 12 midnight and 6 a.m. in the morning.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “I think this is smart. We have to start looking ahead at some of these things. I understand we’re a small town, Central Pennsylvania, but we have to look at what is happening and in an increasing number of places where people are setting up ways that they can camp out. I think it’s very smart to look ahead.”
Alleys were also discussed last night – specifically the condition of the alleys.
Coffman said, “One of the takeaways here, we’ve got almost 24 miles of alleys in the borough of Chambersburg and there’s been next to nothing in the way of work done to maintain those or improve them in any way whatsoever. The money’s just not been there. So part of his discussion not only was what we need to do to take care of them and what the different levels of service would be with those alleys, was what some possible answers might be on raising revenue. Well, none of them are really what you want to do, but it’s something that now we can deliberate over a little bit more and see if there’s a good way of doing this.”
Council also talked about appointing members to committees that Larry Hensley had been on. Hensley passed away suddenly in May.
Coffman said, “Stacy Short, our new council member representing the Fourth Ward, took three of those areas. She agreed to do that. She’s going to do the Board of Health, emergency medical services and also Downtown Chambersburg, Incorporated and then the fourth thing that Larry was on was Planning and Zoning and John Huber is going to go on the Planning and Zoning group, so we got that taken care of last night too.”
