Williams named West Mahanoy Twp. Police Chief

SHENANDOAH HEIGHTS – West Mahanoy Township officially has a new top cop, replacing longtime Chief Marvin Livergood.

Township supervisors approved hiring Matthew Williams as police chief retroactive to May 16 at a rate of $29.16/hr.

Williams was previously a full-time police officer with Shenandoah Borough and has worked part-time in numerous other departments in northern Schuylkill County. He was also Officer-in-Charge in Mahanoy Township.

“I believe we did make a good choice with Matt,” Supervisors Chairman Paul “Pepper” Martin said after Williams’ first report at the meeting.

Martin said the department is seeking one more full-time officer.

In Williams’ report, he said there were 29 traffic citations filed, most of which were speed enforcement.

“When I took over as police chief, supervisors expressed certain roads in the township had complaints about speeding,” Williams said. “We’re out there, we’re out there doing speed enforcement.”

Williams said the department handled 69 calls in May and there were four criminal arrests.

He was ceremonially sworn in by Martin. Williams was officially sworn in by a Magisterial District Judge.

In other business, township supervisors voted to advertise amendments to the township noise ordinance to include things like radios, music, and more, Martin said. The exact language is being reviewed by Solicitor James Amato.

Township supervisors also approved the hiring of Matthew Kropp as a part-time code enforcement officer at a rate of $17/hr and increased the pay of James Heffner, another code enforcement officer, to $18/hr.

Supervisors also voted to approve drafting a letter of support for Online Publishers for Equitable Notices, a consortium of independent, online news publishers, including the Sentinel, seeking equitable updates to the state’s public notice law.

Legislation is circulating in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to update state law to allow public notices to be published online, but only on a print newspaper’s website or the website of a formerly-printed newspaper, unless one doesn’t exist in a county, effectively excluding online-only outfits.

The Shenandoah Sentinel was the ONLY local news source at this meeting, and has been the ONLY local news source covering West Mahanoy Township supervisors for well over a year. If you find value in our reporting and in knowing what YOUR local elected leaders are doing, PLEASE consider contributing to our efforts via Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee.

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