Nesquehoning Council is making some changes to its police force temporarily since the lack of part-time staff as well as full-time health issues have left the borough with holes in coverage times.

Council has temporarily suspended the detective position to get more police on the street.

The discussion began after resident Mike Malaska asked why state police were covering the borough from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

“We have a police department and we made a detective out of one of these guys and it’s coming back to bite you in the ass,” he told council.

He then asked if there was anyone working night shift.

Mayor Sam Kitchko, who is in charge of the police department, addressed Malaska’s concern.

He said that one officer is out on medical leave, another is on restricted duty and the last part-timer the department had just found a full-time job elsewhere.

Kitchko added that all the day shifts are being covered, but because there isn’t a full complement of officers, they are supplementing with state police at this time.

He noted that he also planned on suggesting looking at a regionalization with Summit Hill and Lansford since Summit Hill is also in the same boat right now.

Later in the meeting, council brought up the position of police detective, which council created on a trial period last September and extended another month until July 1 last month.

Councilwoman Rosemary Porembo, chairwoman of the public safety committee, outlined her findings, saying that at this time because of the pandemic and officer injuries and illnesses, she doesn’t believe the borough has enough data to make an educated decision on if this is saving the county money and centralizing the police department.

Some council members felt at this time, maybe Detective Richard Neikam should return to active duty, rather than day shift when there are other officers already on shift.

Councilman Frank Jacobs said that he didn’t see the point in having a detective at this time and should consider moving things around.

Councilman Lou Paul, who said he was initially in favor of this, but isn’t seeing what he had been hoping for with the detective position because its goal was to have more police presence on the street. That isn’t happening at this time due to the lack of officers.

He suggested a temporary change until police staffing is back up and then readdressing it.

Councilwoman Mary Fox agreed with Paul.

Councilman Michael Radocha brought up a directive the borough received from Lansford Police Chief Jack Soberick, which states that officers from Lansford would not respond to cover routine/nonlife-threatening problems in either Nesquehoning or Summit Hill without that borough having police coverage.

They would assist officers if backup is needed, but that would mean an officer would need to be working on all shifts.

After further discussion, council approved discontinuing the detective position for the time being because public safety comes first. This means that the detective will go back to normal shift coverage on the streets to provide the borough with three officers to cover some more of the shifts.

Council said that the detective position will be discussed again when the police department is once again fully staffed.

In a related matter, council also approved hiring Allen Strohl as a part-time police officer, pending his successful completion at the police academy next month, as well as Robert Todd as a part-time police officer, pending a background check.

Council also approved getting a background check on applicant Stephen Biscardi. Biscardi applied for a part-time police officer position.