If its planned mediation with a neighboring borough to salvage the Upper Perk Police District does not succeed, Pennsburg Borough Council is prepared to maintain around-the-clock police coverage in the municipality.

                On Tuesday, during public deliberations over the 2017 budget, elected officials unveiled a plan to absorb all but one member of the regional department as the Pennsburg Borough Police Department.

                According to the proposal, municipal officials would implement a half-millage tax increase to generate an additional $36,000 that would help pay for an eight-person department.

                Currently, the Upper Perk Police District includes eight officers and a chief.

                The proposed eight-person department is the minimum size necessary to maintain 24/7 coverage in the borough based on standards set by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Mayor Vicki Lightcap.  "We're hoping to do what's best for the residents," she said after the public meeting.

                The proposed tax hike, from 5.475 mills to 5.975 mills, would cost the average property owner in the borough an additional $60, according to Borough Manager Jeanne W. Hopkins.

                Vice President Bruce Lord stated that he had once expressed a willingness to pay more in taxes in order to maintain around-the-clock police coverage in the borough. Multiple council members echoed Lord's sentiment.

                Lightcap told the council that she met recently with district Chief Michael Devlin to discuss the cost of operating an eight-person department in Pennsburg. She said their deliberations reduced the price of the current department, from $1.3 million, to $844,000.

                After the meeting, Kirkwood expressed confidence that Pennsburg officials could reduce that cost to approximately $828,000.

                He said the public safety plan would give his municipality additional leverage in its upcoming mediation with East Greenville, which voted in September to dissolve the Upper Perk Police Commission on March 6, 2017.

                Pennsburg's elected officials directed Solicitor Chuck Garner to confer with his East Greenville counterpart about setting up a pre-mediation meeting.  "The fact that we can support an entire police department gives us a little more leverage," Kirkwood said.

                He suggested that the solicitor set up a stipulation that East Greenville agree to enter the mediation process in good faith. "Both municipalities have to put skin on the table," Lightcap said during the meeting.

                Garner said that the two communities likely won't be able to settle their differences by March 6, East Greenville's dissolution date, and that if the neighboring borough isn't willing to extend its deadline, the mediation "may not be worth it."

                Member Robert Seville expressed skepticism that East Greenville would maintain the commission.

                "They keep coming back to us with negative responses," he said. "We have to give our residents the best possible option."