West Penn Township will likely have another full-time police officer beginning in January.

On Monday, supervisors voted 2-1 to move Cpl. Glenn Laninger from part-time to full-time employment with the township’s police department.

The appointment is conditional upon his accepting the offer and approval by township police Chief Jason Lorah.

“This would allow us to have a little more coverage,” Lorah said before the vote.

Supervisor Glenn Hummel said Laninger had been working close to full-time hours each week. He has also been with the township police force for almost 10 years.

Chairman Tony Prudenti said he wasn’t against the full-time employment for Laninger, but said hiring him to more hours wouldn’t be fair to the incoming supervisor.

He suggested appointing Laninger during the board’s January reorganization meeting.

“In the meantime we can do background checks and everything that needs to be done,” Prudenti said.

Hummel said that the township has enough funds to support another full-time officer, and that the issue has been discussed for four months.

He said he didn’t want to put it off any longer.

Hummel motioned to amend the agenda to discuss offering Laninger a full-time position.

“You can let it wait until January but we kicked it around for how many months now,” Hummel said.

After some discussion, a motion was added to conditionally hire Laninger. If he accepts the offer, he will start full-time hours in January.

The vote was split, with Prudenti opposed. He said he had “nothing against” Laninger or Lorah.

“The only reason I’m saying ‘nay’ is that it is not fair to incoming supervisor to inherit another salary that we have to deal with on next year’s budget,” he said.