Lehighton is the latest municipality to discuss the possibility of police service regionalization.

Councilman Joe Flickinger said at last week’s Lehighton Borough Council meeting that they’ve been talking with Mahoning Township Supervisor board Chair Deb McGowan.

“This isn’t a new topic to us,” Flickinger said.

Flickinger noted that the topic was previously discussed in the early 2000s, then again around 2016.

He said that while there’s funding for a feasibility study, there’s only so much as a single entity they can do, and that this may broaden their ability to expand services.

Flickinger added he believes the concept of regionalization needs to be looked at, and that the borough should consider it.

McGowan, who was at Monday’s borough council meeting, briefly spoke to the topic.

“We are willing to look into it,” McGowan said. “We should start gathering information and go from there.”

With regionalization, McGowan said they could all form one department to work cohesively and save taxpayers money.

“Our departments are dwindling,” said McGowan, who added she believes it could lead to one nice cohesive department. “At least we could have 24-hour coverage our residents and taxpayers deserve.”

However, Councilman Steve Hawk said it seems like Lehighton would potentially have the most to lose due to the geography.

But, Flickinger said the other side of the coin is if they continue to have issues with staffing.

McGowan said Mahoning Township typically waits 40 minutes to an hour for state police coverage, and suggested everyone work together with Pennsylvania State Police.

Lehighton Mayor Ryan Saunders said right now the borough is limited to how many officers it can afford per shift.

Flickinger said that as a larger department, it could lead to getting more chances to receive grants.

Saunders added that regionalization has been in conversations for years, and that he believes an ad hoc committee would be a good starting point for funding, and to see what departments would be interested.

Borough police Chief Troy Abelovsky said regionalization has some advantages as well as some disadvantage.

It was stated the idea would be to create a committee to find out who else is available.

Saunders said they’ve done some poking to see if Mahoning Township and Weissport would like to be part of it.

Abelovsky said advancement opportunities could be among the positives.

Council did not take any action on the matter.

Last week, Mahoning Township supervisors discussed at their meeting the possibility of regionalizing police departments.