"Clarkie" has gotten a reprieve, at least a temporary one, from the West Marlborough supervisors.
In their proposed budget, the township board had budgeted $0 for police protection. But after hearing from several township residents who wanted the township's part-time officer to stay on, the board tweaked the numbers and budgeted $6,400 to keep him on the job for two more months. (They did that by cutting the budgeted amount for the township engineer from $12,000 to $7,000 and the budgeted amount for the codes enforcement officer from $5,000 to $4,000).
Robert Clarke is the chief of police in East Marlborough but works 40 hours a month in West Marlborough.
During those two months, Supervisor Bill Wylie said, the supervisors from the two townships will try to reach an affordable solution in which Clarkie can still be "on call" to respond to problems in West Marlborough. The board paid $50 an hour for his services when the agreement between the townships started in 2008; it is now $80 an hour. The supervisors hired him for two reasons (to cut down on speeding and to reduce illegal parking at The Whip tavern in Springdell) but he has apparently endeared himself to residents.
Five West Marlborough residents (Kathleen Crompton, Clipper LaMotte, Melissa Marino, Anna Myers, and Nita Greer) attended the normally perfunctory budget approval meeting on Dec. 29 to express their support for Clarkie, saying he provides a quicker response than the state police, knows the township roads and people, serves as a proactive presence to deter crime, and helps out at special events like the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. They said they like having a familiar face to contact.
"Clarkie is there for us even when he's not on duty," said Nita Greer. "He responds and he cares and he's there."
Clipper LaMotte said Clarkie is a bargain "in terms of bang for the buck," is also a trained nurse, and "knows the territory inside and out." He said his service is "unique and valuable for the amount of money we spend ... he's meant a lot to us."
Kathleen Crompton said just the day before Clarkie had helped out at the Buck & Doe Trust's road cleanup, driving along Route 82 with his lights flashing to slow traffic. "I was delighted to see him," she said.
The residents said they understood the township's financial constraints, however, and would be satisfied if Clarkie could be kept "on call" rather than working a full 40 hours a month.
No comments:
Post a Comment