Vernon police ask for budget increase

VERNON — The Vernon Township Police Dept. was the only department out of three that presented to ask for a budget increase in its budget at a budget workshop on Thursday, Feb. 19.

“As we go through the year, some line items are over, some are under.” police chief Randy Mills said. “We are over because we hired four officers, as opposed to two (officers) for 2014.”

According to Mills, retirements and promotions made it necessary to hire additional officers in 2014. This incurred an increase in costs associated with officer training and implementation. Additionally, salary and wages for officers are contractual and accrue a 3 percent average increase in salary.

Additional expenditures included equipment and most notably Narcan, the antidote administered to victims of a heroin overdose. Vernon Township police began using Narcan, along with the rest of the county, in a program implemented last year.

Mills also discussed an increase in radio communications.

“The radio communications have gone up in this town exponentially.” Councilman Brian Lynch said. “You’re doing a great job communicating between the fire department and EMS.”

With the increase in communications, future expenditures on digital communications equipment will be addressed. However, such expenses were not included in the budget increase. It was recommended that future budgets include line items to phase in the new equipment.

Along with the police department, both the tax assessor and Animal Control presented their department budgets. Neither department reported an increase and both reported a savings of around $11,000 for the year.

Mayor Victor Marotta presented in his State of the Township discussion that there would be no tax increases in this year’s budget.