Williamsport City Council Public Safety Committee learned Tuesday that the Williamsport Bureau of Police has two candidates ready for hire as police officers. If hired, the new members would bring the department complement to 49 officers, two below the 51 officers budgeted.

City Police Chief Justin Snyder, who spoke to the committee members Councilman Jon Mackey and Councilwoman Bonnie Katz online via Zoom, said he provided the officers’ biographies and that they will be discussed for hire at Thursday’s council meeting.

Their cost for hire is included in the department budget and if hired will bring the department two below what it budgeted.

“We had three extra slots we budgeted for this year and one retirement,” Snyder said.

Another two officer candidates are in the chain, he noted.

Katz said she was glad to hear that one of the officer candidates has chosen to live in the city.

She asked Snyder how many officers are ready to retire.

“Right now we have a handful of officers who are eligible to leave,” he said. “It’s going to be up to them,” he added. “We are looking at two within the next two years.”

A “handful” of the officers are in the drop pension program, which allows them to leave at any time within the next five years.

These two new hires, with one replacing a retirement, and another getting the city toward the budgeted amount, will put 49 officers on the rolls. Currently, there are 47 officers until the council approves the hirings.

Katz asked about the K-9 unit which she continued to want to see funded not by any line item in the budget but through donations.

“I don’t know where the city stands with its finances,” she said, adding she looked at South Williamsport’s K-9 unit and noticed sub shops were giving a percentage they sell to the K-9.

Police here are receiving donations for the K-9s and recently listed one on Crime Watch over social media sites.

“We are actually looking to bring a third K-9 on a ballistics dog,” Snyder said.

Any general information on street closures for the upcoming Little League events will be published through Crime Watch.