CLEARFIELD- A week earlier, a joint meeting between Clearfield Borough Council and the Lawrence Township Board of Supervisors had one focus, and one focus only. That was to find a solution to the ongoing issue of the borough wanting to leave the Clearfield Regional Police Department at the end of the year, and planning to restart their own department. That meeting had some contentious moments, and passionate pleas from both the public and the officers in the department, but at the end many felt that they were moving in the right direction.
It seems that direction has now gone in the opposite path.
Thursday’s agenda listed a motion to have a final vote on the borough’s participation in the CRPD. Before the vote took place, assistant police chief Julie Curry, spoke on the vote as well as reenforcing her stance.
“I think everyone in this room is well aware of my stance. I just encourage you to vote on what you think is best, and not what your fellow colleagues are going to do,” Curry said. “I still believe that the regional police are the best way to go for both municipalities. It is a concern for me, but I can assure you that we can work with whatever issues that both municipalities have.
“This is a big decision, and there’s a lot of weight with this decision. Staying in for another year or two, seeing if some of these issues can be resolved, will have less of an impact than voting tonight to dissolve.”
Council moved forward with the discussion, and the public had a passionate plea to stay in. Some reinforced the issues of evidence being moved from one precinct to another, and whether any of the officers were going to be retained in any fashion.
However, Christie Fulton’s time at the podium to speak on the matter went from a discussion into a shouting match. Fulton has been vocal about the Borough’s budget allotment for the police, and the 2026 budget that did not include the original funding that was borrowed from Lawrence Township to help cover the final months of pay for officers in 2025, which they then paid back via a T.A.N. loan and are now making payments to the bank to pay it back. Her comments got so heated that she began shouting at council members even after her time was up at the podium, and as she was walking out the door.
Council president Ann Jane Ross later in the meeting made the motion for the final vote for dissolution, and also called for a role call vote.
The final vote was unanimous, as Ross, Bill Armstrong, Dennis Traveny, Vice President Dennis Biancuzzo, and Barb Shaffner all voted to end the borough’s participation. Absent from the vote were Tristan Buck, George Dehaven, and Bruce Fair. Mayor Mason Strouse was in attendance, but had no vote.
With the vote, Ross noted they would move forward with the dissolution process, saying there have been talks of where to go from here. Clearfield Borough is tied into the regional police through the end of the year, as Judge Paul E. Cherry made that decision in the suit that was submitted by both Lawrence Township and the Regional Police Commission.
“Once we have an official dissolution date, then we can specifically start planning on getting our ordinances in place, and getting the borough police back, and how to recreate that department,” she said.
A lot of questions for the officers, regarding whether any testing will need to be retaken if they wish to be retained, or if they will be allowed a waiver on certain civil service testing, is still uncertain. Interim solicitor, Jim Dennison, says there’s likely potential for some waivers, however it will be discussed over the next several weeks.
Currently, the next joint meeting between Borough Council and Lawrence Township Board of Supervisors is still slated for next Wednesday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at the borough office; however, it appears this meeting will potentially have a much different tone compared to the prior.
Borough Council will reconvene for their regular meeting on Thursday, April 2, beginning at 5 p.m.
