Canonsburg Police officially begin agreement to cover Houston Borough
HOUSTON BOROUGH, Pa. (KDKA) - At 7 a.m. on Friday, Canonsburg police started covering Houston Borough.
The two municipalities came together with leaders shaking hands to commemorate the moment. They had been talking about a potential merger for years, wanting to get 24/7 policing for all of the community, but a new Sheetz helped to speed up the process.
Houston Mayor James Stubenbordt said it's a long time coming for their one-square-mile of land, that's never had 24-hour police service.
"You know this is a big plus for us," Stubenbordt said. "The most we could cover was 17 hours with part-time officers."
Houston also relied on Pennsylvania State Police, which resulted in long response times, sometimes up to as much as an hour. The department continued to lose officers due to financial constraints, but at the same time, the borough has been seeing a growth in business that brings more traffic to the area.
Donald Cross is Canonsburg's deputy police chief.
"They want to make sure that the store is in a place where they feel that it's safe and that there's law enforcement presence regularly," Cross said.
Eventually, Stubenbordt and Canonsburg Mayor David Rhome realized a merger made a lot of sense for both boroughs and entered a three-year agreement.
"It's just a great fit for everybody," Rhome said.
Canonsburg hired an additional officer and is now patrolling three zones, something leaders said benefits everyone, and won't reduce service in Canonsburg.
"They're going to have the ability to call the police and know that we're going to be here within minutes for protection," Cross said.
The hope is it will continue long-term.
"We'll work very hard to keep that relationship going," Stubenbordt said.
Under the agreement, Houston will pay Canonsburg about $337,000 for policing the next three years.