East Greenville officials want to hire a new chief for the municipality's police department. Mayor Keith Gerhart made the announcement during Monday's borough council meeting in response to a question from former Mayor Ryan Sloyer.

            "It's time," Gerhart said after the meeting.

            Council initially discussed the idea during an executive session prior to the meeting, according to Council President Angie Fegely. Gerhart said he would like to prefer to hire Drew Skelton's successor as soon as possible, but conceded that the process could take months.

            In May, council voted twice to terminate Skelton following a two-year tenure as chief of the Borough of East Greenville Police Department. Three days earlier, a hearing officer issued a decision which found no evidence to overturn council's decision to remove Skelton, who took himself off duty at 4 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2018.

            According to Gerhart, council couldn't begin the search until Skelton's appeal period expired during the third week of June. During the meeting, the current mayor said the members hadn't decided if they were going to hire a consultant to help them find a new chief, or if they would conduct the search alone.

            A new police chief is necessary to complete certain tasks an officer in charge is not allowed to handle, according to Gerhart. After the meeting, he identified some of those tasks as implementing policies such as scheduling, discipline and other daily procedures to deal with legal action in case an officer is involved in a shooting.

            The mayor seeks candidates with experience who are familiar with borough police departments. Randy Morris, the department's current officer in charge with 29 years of experience with the Bristol Borough Police Department, could be a candidate. According to Gerhart, Morris said he was willing to discuss the position with the mayor.

            In June, the borough's police department responded to 142 total calls, according to information presented by Gerhart and collected by Morris. They handled 35 traffic incidents, 30 public service calls, 11 assists, four accidents, three warrant, animal domestic and fire calls, two parking calls and one each for an alarm, harassment and disorderly. The report identified 45 "other" calls.