Morris forms police department
NINEVEH – For more than two years, Morris Township has relied on outside police departments to patrol its roads and keep its community safe.
That all changed Monday when the township supervisors and other elected officials and law enforcement agency representatives met to mark the creation of the Morris Township Police Department.
During the brief ceremony, Supervisor Roger Creech gave the oath of office to the township’s new police Chief Michael Natale. Natale, who has been employed in law enforcement for eight years, is no stranger to Morris Township.
He has worked as a police officer in the township for the last two and half years, first with Southwest Regional then with Donegal Township. He also has been employed as a deputy for the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Natale said he felt honored to serve the township and recognized the responsibility to people in the community who are “trusting me to keep them safe.”
The supervisors have set up the police office in the Morris Township Community Center and purchased a new police vehicle and other equipment, including scales for weighing commercial trucks.
At the start, Natale said, he will be the only officer and will work 40 hours a week. In the next few months, however, he hopes to have a few part-timers on hand.
Natalie said he will focus on commercial traffic enforcement and crime.
“There is a big rural drug problem,” he said. “And there are some people with sticky fingers because of that.”
The township faces issues many rural municipalities in the area face with increased truck traffic from the coal and natural gas industries and increased crime, much of it drug related, Supervisor Bob Keller said.
“We have 1,040 residents and many of them are seniors who may not be able to fend for themselves,” Keller said. “We want to give people a degree of piece of mind.”
With the formation of the department, Morris Township became one of only four municipalities in Greene County to have its own police force. The others are Cumberland Township and Waynesburg and Carmichaels boroughs.
Morris Township has contracted police services since late 2013, first with the Southwest Regional Police Department and most recently with the Donegal Township Police Department in Washington County.
“As things progressed we saw what was being done (with police patrols) and decided to look at something a little more in depth,” Keller said. “We saw when police were here and when they were not here. There was a noticeable difference.”
The township hopes the new police department will augment law enforcement throughout the county, Keller said. He thanked state police and the sheriff’s department for their assistance in the municipality.
“We hope to give everybody in the county in law enforcement another tool they can use,” he said.
The township supervisors also are open to working with other municipalities in the area that may want to see local police protection in their communities, Keller said.
The police department is being funded primarily with Act 13 impact fee money. Outside the initial start-up costs, Keller said, the cost of police services will be similar to what the township has been paying for contracted services.
Keller thanked Donegal police Chief John Yankosek, who helped the township set up the department, as well as the local law enforcement officials who attended Monday’s event including Sheriff Brian Tennant, state police Sgt. Steven Dowlin and District Attorney Marjorie Fox.
“Chief Natale will be a welcome addition to local law enforcement in Greene County,” Dowlin said, “State police will be more than happy to assist him in his endeavor.”