Snyder Township Supervisor Buddy Daughenbaugh went before Tyrone Borough Council on Monday looking for assistance in patrolling the area around the Tyrone Area schools.
\nThe township does not maintain its own force and has been looking at a solution for parking and jurisdictional issues regarding the area. Additional concerns include students littering and loitering along the roadway.
\nAt a township meeting in February, the school district\u2019s Cathy Peachey was on hand to discuss the issues on Hospital Road and Clay Avenue.
\nA previous Herald article said the parties were working together to see if school police officer, Bub Dick, has jurisdiction off of school property, but inside of the school zone, from Hospital Drive to the tennis courts along Clay Avenue.
\nAt the February Snyder Township meeting, Peachey said she planned to meet with the district attorney and the district magistrate to see if school zone traffic violations and other citations issued by the district officer would be upheld in court.
\nAt Monday\u2019s Tyrone Borough Council meeting, Daughenbaugh explained the concerns and asked if the borough would be able to provide a police officer to patrol the area for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon based on the arrival and departing times of students from the schools. The area in question is in Snyder Township and not within Tyrone Borough lines.
\nDaughenbaugh told council about the jurisdictional issues and said he had been advised of a case where a school district officer made an arrest off of school property in the Pittsburgh area. In that case, Daughenbaugh said the charges did not hold up in court.
\nDaughenbaugh had discussed the issues with Tyrone Police Chief Joe Beachem prior to Monday\u2019s meeting. Beachem advised council the borough did not have the manpower available to provide an officer during the times requested and there were also other logistical issues regarding the use of staff.
\nCurrently, state police respond to the area, but only when summoned or as part of regular patrols that might not coincide with the morning and afternoon time periods.
\nAfter several questions to Daughenbaugh and comments from various council members, a suggestion was made that the township might consider hiring its own part-time officer. Tyrone also agreed to provide a council member representative to attend future meetings Daughenbaugh plans to hold with others involved in the issue.
\nTyrone Superintendent Dr. William N. Miller spoke to The Daily Herald about the school zone issues on Tuesday.
\n\u201cWe are appreciative of the Snyder Township supervisors, particularly Buddy Daughenbaugh, for picking this up and carrying the ball relative to the issue of traffic control on Hospital Road,\u201d said Miller. \u201cThis has been an issue for us for the last five or six years and we haven\u2019t been able to get any movement regarding (it) for that period of time.
\n\u201cThe district is concerned about the potential of injury and harm for students loitering on Hospital Road,\u201d said Miller. \u201cI know our attorneys, the Snyder Township attorneys and the district attorney have been researching (jurisdictional issues). Our initial preference would be for our own school police to monitor that area.\u201d
\nMiller said the district officer can connect with the students since he would be aware of who they are.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very economical way to handle it, but whether that can be done legally is the question,\u201d said Miller.
\n\u201cThis has got to be monitored on a regular basis, there has to be a connection of a fine or a penalty for students who loiter there so they understand there is a penalty. Legally, we only have jurisdiction on our school property,\u201d said Miller.
\nMiller said the district would assume costs on the patrolling of the area but the district wants a say in how that\u2019s determined and the amount of time spent so there is some limit in terms of the costs.
\n\u201cPaying our officer to do that would just be a change in a schedule versus a borough or other officer,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Snyder Township Supervisor Buddy Daughenbaugh went before Tyrone Borough Council on Monday looking for assistance in patrolling the area around the Tyrone Area schools. The township does not maintain its own force and has been looking at a solution for parking and jurisdictional issues regarding the area. Additional concerns include students littering and loitering along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}