Lansford Borough Council wants to gauge interest on regionalization of neighboring police forces and borough streets workers.

Borough council on Wednesday approved drafting letters to Summit Hill and Nesquehoning for combining police, and Coaldale for streets workers.

Councilman Jack Soberick said the discussion about regionalization came up recently at committee meetings for public safety and public works, looking to the borough’s closest neighbors to combine departments.

A county-wide regionalization plan would be ideal, Soberick said, but they have to start somewhere.

“Let’s start a prototype and see where the chips fall,” he said. “We’ve got to knock the first domino over.”

Soberick offered to draft the letters on behalf of council with the intent of meeting with their neighbors to discuss the possibility of regionalization.

He suggested an informal meeting with one or two of their leaders to go over what regionalization could look like, rather than a public meeting at this time.

The borough continues to field complaints about police coverage as it struggles to hire additional officers to bolster its force which has three full-timers and four part-timers, half of which are off or have very limited hours reducing the effective part-time number to two to fill in gaps.

Council approved state Heart and Lung Act benefits for police Sgt. Shawn Nunemacher, who suffered an injury while working on April 15. Nunemacher is one of the three full-time officers and has been serving as officer-in-charge. Council did not discuss his injury or the possible length of his absence, which reduces the force to two full-time officers temporarily.

However, the next ranking officer, Det. Josh Tom, is now serving as the officer-in- charge, and Mayor Denise Leibensperger did not have a police report due to Nunemacher being out on medical leave.

“He is the only person who can access that computer that has those reports,” she said.

She also fielded a complaint from resident Erin Soberick, who said she had not been contacted in regard to a complaint and police report.

Leibensperger explained the situation of not having an officer and said that another officer said that he contacted her. The mayor also said she did not have access to the police email and did not know what she had sent.

“He told me he notified you. That’s the best I can do,” Leibensperger said, and responded to a statement that the force can’t be that busy not to return a call.

“We are not that busy? We have the highest call volume in this county,” she countered. “We are short staffed. We have two full-time and two part-time.”

The borough did receive three applications for full-time officers, Council President Joe Genits said. The borough’s Civil Service Commission plans to meet next week to begin the applicant review process, its chairman said.

Council also approved a three-year pact with Teamsters Local 773, which represents the borough’s streets department.

Solicitor Bob Yurchak cautioned council before approving the contract as they planned to talk to Coaldale about regionalization.

“My thought is you just authorized the letter to go to Coaldale to combine borough workers. Shouldn’t you wait until you hear back from Coaldale?” he asked council members.

The merged streets force could mean going with the higher paying contract, which could be Coaldale’s, he said.

Councilman John Zym, who was appointed to fill a vacancy earlier this year, questioned multiple aspects of the Teamsters’ pact, including 5% raises over each of the three years, double-time on holidays, paid birthdays, low health care contributions and ability to bank up to 150 days sick time.

“I’d like to say that the police were not allowed comp time, but we’re going to give it to borough workers, when the police are 24/7 operations, 365 days a year,” Leibensperger said.

Councilman Joe Butrie said there were numerous concessions made from what the union, which represents three workers, wanted. He also pointed out that Lansford workers were among the lowest paid in the area.

Genits said wages will go to $28.13 an hour for 2026, $29,54 in 2027 and $31.01 in 2028. The other change is a straight eight-hour workday with two 15-minute breaks, rather than a half-hour lunch, he said.

Council approved the contract on a 6-1 vote with Zym casting the lone no vote on roll call.