Lehighton Police Department will add three full-time officers to get back to full staff.

After an executive session, borough council on Monday gave the department permission to hire the officers from the civil service list.

Borough police Chief Joe Sparich thanked the civil service commission for conducting the process, as well as council for approving the eventual hires.

Earlier in the meeting, council approved the police civil service eligibility list.

“It’s replacing officers that have left the department,” Sparich said. “Currently, the department has three vacancies, with another full-time officer set to retire early next year.”

Sparich said that including himself, the department currently has nine full-time police officers.

“In this climate, it’s hard to get a lot of applicants for people to want to be officers,” he said. “It was good to see that we had so many applicants test.”