TYRONE — The resignation of a full-time police officer and an improvement project for Reservoir Park topped the list of items voted on during Monday’s Tyrone Borough Council meeting.

With councilman William Wiser voting no, the council accepted the resignation of full-time officer Jeff Barr, whose resignation is effective Friday.

Borough officials have a meeting with the civil service commission March 20 to begin the testing and hiring process for Barr’s replacement, Interim Borough Manager Kim Gurekovich said, noting the borough currently has eight full-time police officers, which includes chief Jessica Walk.

During public comment, resident Linda Daniels asked the council what their plans are to replace K-9 officer Getro, who retires Wednesday after the borough voted last month to end Getro’s K-9 program early due to the dog’s age and decreasing use.

Daniels alleged the borough also eliminated three officer positions, which Mayor John Harlow denied in his response.

“It is a personnel issue where we cannot comment on anything and we did not eliminate three officers,” Harlow said in response to Daniels’ comment about Getro.

In other business

At the start of the meeting, Harlow read a proclamation declaring March 11-15 as Irish Heritage week and presented a certificate of appreciation to John Franco, who stepped down as the Tyrone Area High School’s football coach earlier this year.

During the meeting, the council voted to donate an unused police car to the school district after school officials expressed interest in what Walk said officers refer to as the “COVID car,” a 2020 Ford Interceptor.

Historically, the borough has sold its retired police cars to companies in New Jersey and New York, typically for about $1,200 to $2,000 through a bidding process, Gurekovich said.

Walk said the vehicle has had transmission issues three times since they got it. The borough spent “a bunch of money” trying to fix it in the past, but problems continue to persist, she said.

According to Gurekovich, the district plans to use the vehicle as “an everyday car.”

Wiser and councilman Bob Dollar spoke in favor of donating the vehicle to the district.

“I say just donate it,” Wiser said while the council was deciding whether to donate or sell the vehicle to the district.

Reservoir Park

The borough also approved engineering plans for Reservoir Park on Monday.

Lehman Engineering has been working diligently with Gurekovich and Eric Desch, the borough’s highway superintendent, for the Reservoir Park improvement project plan, which Gurekovich said officials don’t have a timeline for yet.

For an estimate of about $65,000, Lehman Engineers will measure the existing pavilions to note footprint and heights and fireplace locations, review existing structures for design features and prepare construction plans for each pavilion.

They will also create a 3D rendering of one structure for the borough to choose colors, prepare specifications for bidding and respond to requests for information, make two site visits during construction, review four payment applications, test and evaluate various electric service layouts and provide electrical drawings to an architect for inclusion in bid documents, according to Gurekovich’s report.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.