Great Example

[Albert62]

In a time when everyone wants to bash public employees, here's a great story and a great example of giving back to the community.

http://www.sungazette.com/page/conte....html?nav=5011




The Old Lycoming Township Police department is multi-talented and taxpayer-friendly.

The nine-man department understood the township might have difficulty coming up with enough money to provide them with professional contractors to expand the police headquarters and didn't even bother to ask for them.

Instead, they sought permission to do the work themselves.

The township's leaders agreed, and for the past three months officers have been mixing their police work and renovation and expansion of the police department.

The end-result will double the department's space by expanding into a section of the municipal building on Green Avenue.

Two years ago, the highway crew vacated its garages at the township and moved to the township farm. The township then renovated and moved its offices into the vacated garage area and made vacated space available to the police.

Using the extra space without renovations posed some logistical issues, but like most employees of the small township, the police understood their financial realities and - because the extra space was becoming crucial -got to work as soon as the supervisors gave the go-ahead.

As the work progressed, local businesses and private citizens made donations. Sgt. Joe Hope's brother, an engineer, helped prepare the design and blueprints, and the township chipped in what it could for materials.

The project is doable because some department members have special skills from their "regular"lives.

Hope, for example, had 15 years experience in maintenance at a local industrial plant and Cpl. Morris Sponhouse 16 years as a flooring contractor.

Others with basic construction skills or a willingness to learn on the job stepped forward - and the project is taking shape.

There are about three more months of work before the project is complete.

Progress has been slow but steady, and work is being done so as to not disrupt regular police services or the operation of day-to-day work that keeps the department functioning.

The project will create new offices for the administrate staff, a conference room, two interview rooms and separate and larger records and evidence storage areas.

Officers in the department, including Chief William Solomon, all are helping in some way.

Those who lack the skills to do more than paint or sand, for example, help by taking shifts so others can work on the expansion project.

"Everybody chips in some way," Hope said.

The police staff is not being paid extra for its labor or extra shifts, but officers can swap the time for future time off if they want or need it.

Hope estimates that by using their own labor, recycling materials as they renovate and community donations, the project will come in a minimum of $30,000 less than what it would have cost if a contractor were used.

There is no exact estimate of what the cost would have been using a contractor because there was no bidding process, but police officers and Township Manager Bob Whitford believe it could have been more than $100,000. They expect the finished project to be "a fraction" of that.

"To get it done (we had to) do it ourselves," Hope said, "and we don't mind that."

He said the department has grown by three officers in the last few decades and desperately needs more room for storage of records and evidence.

Sponhouse understands the value of what he and his co-workers are doing.

"The tax dollars aren't there to pay for it," he said. "I'm just glad we have the ability to save the taxpayers some money ... What we're going to have at the end (will be) much more user-friendly."