LONDON GROVE: Residents don't want to join a regional police force

At a public meeting on May 28, about 100 London Grove Township residents made it clear to their township supervisors that they're perfectly happy with current coverage from the Pennsylvania State Police barracks at Avondale and don't feel that joining a proposed regional police force would be worth the tax money.
The supervisors called the hour-long meeting, held at Engle Middle School, to get input from township residents. Under the proposal, London Grove, which doesn't have its own police force and relies solely on the state police, would join with Kennett Square Borough, Kennett Township, New Garden Township, West Grove, and Avondale (all of which do have their own forces or hire police from another municipality) to create one large unified department to cover the area.
Based on their estimates, the board said the cost for London Grove residents to join the proposed regional force would mean doubling the earned income tax or tripling the township millage rate (figures that drew gasps from the audience).
The supervisors said that they were considering joining the proposed regional force because the population and development are increasing in London Grove, and state police cannot handle "quality-of-life" issues like parking enforcement (one resident mentioned,  for instance, an ongoing problem in which Avon Grove Charter School students park on his cul-de-sac despite the prominent no-parking signs). But the residents at the meeting said they believed there were more cost-effective methods of handling these problems.
The supervisors explained that a decision on joining the regional force is needed within weeks. When asked why the issue wasn't put on the ballot in the primary election so that residents could give it a thumbs up or down, the supervisors said they are not the ones who can place a referendum question on the ballot; citizens need to collect a certain number of signatures on a petition before such a question can be added.
I have to say that Richard Scott-Harper, the London Grove Township board of supervisors chairman, did a great job running the meeting. He was respectful to all but moved the meeting along in very efficient fashion.