Lansford Borough Council will hire more police amid residents’ continued complaints and neighborhood incidents.

Council on Tuesday reviewed the budget after concerns about overages for part-time officers.

“We have enough money; there’s plenty,” council President Bruce Markovich said during the special meeting for the budget review and potential police hiring discussions.

Markovich reviewed the police budget with the borough’s treasurer, Maria Ahner, before the meeting and believes they can shuffle funds in the police budget to ensure hires.

“We definitely have enough money to hire at least one police officer before the end of the year and a chief,” Markovich said.

Council authorized the advertisements for both full- and part-time officers, using the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association website.

Residents asked where the borough was as far as hiring a new police chief, and Markovich said they still need to find a panel of three qualified police chiefs to interview the chief candidates.

The borough has been looking for months to come up with a panel, and Markovich said the problem is that many of the area chiefs know those vying for a position.

The borough has been without a chief since the end of March, when Kyle Woodward departed. The borough hired the state’s chiefs association to conduct a search that resulted in Woodward’s hire.

Council, however, opted not to use the service, which came with a $5,000 price tag, in the current search and is dealing with difficulties finding a panel to do the first round of interviews, Markovich said.

Still, Markovich is hopeful that the borough can move forward with hiring a chief by October, which will allow the borough to budget for a chief’s salary for next year, he said.

Some potential candidates sought $150,000 to $160,000 a year in salary, which the borough can’t afford, Markovich said.

“But if you get a really good, qualified guy that maybe wants $90,000, we need to come up with that,” he said.

The borough budgeted $83,500 for the police chief’s salary, $81,500 for the sergeant’s salary; and $230,000 for patrolmen’s salaries in 2025.

In the first half of the year, the borough spent $23,131 on the chief’s salary with Woodward’s early departure; $47,701 on the sergeant’s salary; and $48,432 on the one patrolman’s salary.

The borough currently has two full-time officers: the sergeant who is the officer in charge and receiving the chief’s pay rate, and a detective. There are also five part-timers.

Markovich noted that the council also has to consider health care for a new chief, which could cost the borough another $41,000 a year.

While the chief has a separate, non-union contract, the borough is obligated to give the chief the same benefits as the union officers receive.

Woodward had opted not to take health care for himself and his family.

The borough has seven candidates interested in becoming the borough’s next top cop, Markovich said.

Residents suggested going after state funding to help hire police officers, as money is available to put candidates through the academy, and adding technology could also attract officers.

Councilman Jack Soberick, a former borough police chief, pointed out that there is funding for the Act 120 training, but there’s a shortage of candidates.

He had 56 people in his academy class, and today you find five in a class, he said.

“Some police departments in Bucks County are hiring, and in two years, they’re at $177,000,” Soberick said. “That’s what you’re competing with. There’s this fantasy that there’s all these part-time people and full time. It’s not there.

“You have to start thinking outside the box, whether it’s regionalizing, shared services, whatever. But to go the academies, they’re not there.”

Those candidates in the academy are already spoken for, he said, and putting their own candidates through the training would take a year and there’s no guarantee they pass.

“I just want to tamp down your expectations that there’s hundreds of guys out there looking because there is not,” Soberick said. “It’s nationwide. There’s no cops, bottom line.”

Resident Denise Leibenspeger continued to advocate for hiring through the state incentive and technology, and newly seated Councilman George Gilbert told her that times have changed.

“Years ago, you couldn’t get a job in this borough if you wanted to be a cop. Years ago, you couldn’t get a job as a teacher,” he said. “Now you can’t find any of them.”

Gilbert said they’re competing against larger departments that can afford to pay more money, and the borough doesn’t have the money to hire 25 officers to combat rising crime in the borough.

“We don’t have the money for that,” Gilbert said. “I understand what everyone is trying to say, but we are in a bad situation. We’re trying to do the best we can.

“We need people. Technology is nice. But we need the people.”

Council notified the Civil Service Commission to produce a new eligibility list. Council threw out a previous list put together by the fledgling commission, finding procedural errors.

Also, none of the candidates passed the physical agility portion of the test, the civil service chair told council. Soberick had said if a candidate flunks any portion of the test, they’re eliminated.

Council agreed to keep the physical agility portion of the test in place moving forward with new hires.

Markovich after the meeting pointed out that they need to have officers on the streets who are physically capable of doing the job, but noted some of the requirements are archaic.