Mahoning Township is but one of many municipalities in the region that relies on Pennsylvania State Police coverage.

Trooper Justin Magluilo of the Pennsylvania State Police, Lehighton barracks, attended last week’s board of supervisors meeting in his role as alternate community service officer.

Magluilo told supervisors that PSP Lehighton covers emergency calls only, and that in the month of January, there were 744 hours of police coverage in the township.

Of those, 347 hours were covered by the township’s police department, with the other 397 hours covered by PSP Lehighton.

“I found that interesting considering it’s a full-time police department,” Magluilo said.

Township police Chief Audie Mertz said the township’s police department is not considered full time by state standards.

Board Chair Deb McGowan said she wasn’t aware of the township police department’s part-time designation.

Magluilo said PSP Lehighton covers 113.10 square miles in Carbon County, and 78 square miles in Monroe County.

McGowan thanked Magluilo for providing that information to supervisors.

“Stats are wonderful,” McGowan said. “They’re going to help us a lot.”

McGowan noted that some days, the township police department has three officers on, and some days they may only have one.

After the meeting, Mertz noted that in 2016, the then board of supervisors made the decision to stop providing police coverage between the hours of 3 and 7 a.m.

As for the hours of police coverage Magluilo reported, Mertz offered an explanation.

“It comes down to the budget that the police department has.” Mertz said. “The police department is underfunded for the size of the municipality, and there is not enough money in the overtime budget to fill all of the shifts that are open when an officer takes off.”

Mertz said that including himself, the township’s police department currently has five full-time officers and one part-time officer.

New building for PSP Lehighton

Also as part of his report to the board of supervisors, Magluilo mentioned that PSP Lehighton will eventually be getting a new barracks sometime within the next two to four years.

However, he said he wasn’t sure quite where the new barracks would be located, though it won’t be all that far from its current location.

Currently, PSP Lehighton barracks are located on Interchange Road in Towamensing Township.