Loyalsock Township is the second largest municipality in Lycoming County.
It has no local police service. Whatever "local" police service the township receives comes from state police stationed at the Montoursville barracks.
At a recent supervisors meeting, a township woman expressed concerns about police coverage, wondering out loud what the township would do for police coverage if the state eliminated the Montoursville barracks. Voices such as hers have been heard from time to time over the years, but they have been mostly lonely voices.
The fact is, Loyalsock is quite a large municipality to be going without a local police force. However, it doesn't appear that residents are concerned about that. And let's face it, the township probably wouldn't have been able to pass a budget with a tax cut for 2013 if it was paying for a local police force. Supervisor Jeff Rauff had a reply for the woman that probably makes the most sense. He said, should the township be mandated or legislated to provide local police coverage, it would look to be part of regionalized services.
We've advocated that for years and there are several regionalized fire coverage setups in the region. Where police are concerned, the city police circumstances and benefits plans would make it difficult to include the city in a regional service.
But that doesn't preclude arrangements among other municipalities with geographic proximity.
And the woman had a good point there is no way to assume the township will always have the convenience of a state police barracks within five minutes of its boundary.
