Tyrone Township officials have extended their contract to keep utilizing the services of county law enforcement.

The Tyrone Township Board of Trustees unanimously passed the resolution to continuing using the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office’s services, Tuesday night. The approval was for an extension to the contract that originally ended at the end of this month. They are now contracted through December 31st, 2022. Tyrone Township Supervisor Mike Cunningham said that for the past 10 or 11 years that they have contracted services with the Sheriff’s Office, that mostly everyone’s been extremely satisfied with them. He continued, saying that having a dedicated patrol is a benefit to the community and there have been a couple incidents where the Sheriff has been able to intervene right away and prevent things from becoming worse.

The agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and Tyrone Township is for 56 hours of coverage, 8 hours day, 7 days a week. Tyrone Township will pay what comes out to an average of $48.58 per hour through the remainder of 2019. The rate will increase less than $2 per-year, settling on $53.42 in 2022.

Cunningham said they’ve had the conversation in the past about starting their own department, and the conclusion was “a hard no.” He said he’s been an advocate for this contract method they are using, and why would they would they take on the exponential cost of starting a new department, when they can put funds into the one that is already established, and get a better deal in the process. (MK)