York City Budget: Parties Scramble To Find Solutions

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

York’s budget woes have set off a scramble to find ways to save positions in the departments that could face the deepest losses — police and fire — and triggered a whirlwind of questions about what would happen to the city if a balanced budget can come only at the cost of cutting public safety personnel.

Mayor Kim Bracey‘s budget, which she introduced Tuesday, would cut 46 positions in the police department and eight fire-fighting jobs, and would cut the city’s work force from 412 employees in 2014 to 315 next year, documents show. Bracey said she was faced with few options and asked community partners, legislators and the county for outside help.

As of Friday, “no one has knocked on the door,” she said.

She has called for union concessions. Bracey said she will meet with fire union President Fred Desantis on Monday, and the city already is in negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police. Police union president Mike Davis said he is “committed” to reaching an agreement before the end of the year.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_26992449/york-city-budget-parties-scramble-find-solutions

York City Police, ATF Partner To Arrest Gang Members

Map of York County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With gang-related violence in York City continuing to claim lives, city police on Tuesday said they are partnering with a federal agency to take violent gang members into custody.

More than 100 York City Police officers and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the sweep, said Chief Wes Kahley.

At a Tuesday news conference, he said he could not release specific information — including the number of arrests so far — because the criminal investigation is ongoing.

Read more: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/ci_26590390/york-city-police-atf-partner-arrest-gang-members

York’s Northeast Neighborhood Residents Wonder What Impact Think Loud Will Have On Their Community

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On a wooden table in Gregg Hardy’s kitchen are a handful of cherry tomatoes.

They come from the garden behind his East Walnut Street home that his wife tends, caring for fish in a small pond and cultivating an orange tree, where a single unripe fruit hung one day in August.

While she will spend a day coaxing flowers to grow, Hardy focuses his own labor on the interior — putting in bathrooms, widening door frames and shaping cabinets.

He bought his home for $15,000 in 2003, property records show. He said he put $20 down on it, and spent several years driving down from New York on weekends to fix it up. He is now entrenched in a neighborhood he believes has remade itself into an area families can call home.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_26386670/yorks-northeast-neighborhood-residents-wonder-what-impact-think

Police Raid York Corner Grocery For Drugs, Money And Guns

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Police seized thousands of dollars worth of heroin and other drugs, along with handguns and cash, in a raid at a York corner grocery store this week, officials said at a news conference Wednesday.

York City Police Chief Wes Kahley said police raided Miguel’s Deli and Grocery, 901 W. Princess Street, and Miguel Garcia’s home above it. They also arrested Sisdey Paz, of the 800 block of West Poplar Street.

“He was selling it out of the store,” York Detective First Class Andrew Shaffer said of Garcia. “He was selling about $1,000 a day of cocaine and heroin.”

Among items seized was a block of raw heroin worth about $100,000, 250 packets of individually packed heroin, $30,000 in cash, raw cocaine worth about $5,000, marijuana, anabolic steroids and three handguns, Kahley said.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_25618313/york-police-significant-heroin-arrest-made?source=most_viewed

York Police ID Alleged Shooter In Saturday’s Double Homicide

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

York City detectives have obtained an arrest warrant for the man believed to be responsible for Saturday evening’s double homicide, York City Police Chief Wes Kahley said.

Laquan Pierrelouis, 22, whose last-known address was in the 900 block of West King Street, is wanted for the 7 p.m. homicides of Braydon Aldinger, 23, of Danielle Court, and Derek Feree, 26, of Old Mill Inn Road. Both men lived in Manchester Township.

“The two victims intentionally called Pierrelouis and a Hispanic male to the 500 block of West Mason Avenue in order to conduct a drug transaction,” Kahley said.

Read more: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_24596225/york-police-id-alleged-shooter-saturdays-double-homicide