Erie County Executive Brenton Davis made a pledge about public safety as he lobbied for the deal for Gannon University to build a water research center at the county's main public library on Erie's bayfront.
In a post on the Erie Times-News' Facebook page to defend the center, Davis said an added benefit of the lease agreement would be that the Gannon police department would patrol the Raymond Blasco, M.D., Memorial Library, on East Front Street.
"Gannon will be adding Blasco to their Police presence patrol as a part of this deal adding an additional level of security and a police force with actual arrest powers," Davis wrote in the post , on March 21. "This has potential to allow the county to further assess and potentially downgrade from armed security in time saving taxpayers more money."
Davis in the post was referring to his decision in 2023 to place private armed security guards at Blasco under a five-year contract with Valentis, a Pittsburgh-based firm .
Despite Davis promising that Gannon police "will be adding" Blasco to their jurisdiction, such a plan is far from final.
Gannon is more circumspect about the expanded jurisdiction, and the Davis administration now says no plans are confirmed.
And even if Gannon and Davis pursue a relationship between Blasco and the university's police force, with 12 full-time officers, the plan would still have to get judicial approval — a critical step that Davis did not mention in his post but that Gannon said it recognizes would have to occur.
"The idea of having Gannon police officers check on our lab employees at Blasco Library was something we briefly discussed early on with county officials, and it has not been revisited in many months," a spokesman for Gannon, Doug Oathout, told the Erie Times-News on July 16.
"This still needs to be assessed," Oathout said. "If we explore it, we understand there would be a process involved."
Oathout confirmed that the process involves court approval.
The Erie Times-News attempted to discuss the police proposal with Davis in person, but he declined to be interviewed through his spokesman, Chris Carroll, who said Davis "doesn't see a sit-down interview as necessary." Davis asked that the Times-News send him questions.
The Times-News, in an email, asked Davis if he could let the newspaper "know when Gannon police will start patrolling the Blasco Library, and what processes must occur for those patrols to come about."
Davis responded with a statement on July 10: "Currently, there are no confirmed plans for Gannon police to start patrolling the Blasco Library. For now, the Blasco Library will continue to use Valentis armed security to ensure the safety and security of our patrons and staff."
In his Facebook post, Davis wrote about why the county hired Valentis' security guards — which he said the Gannon police would eventually replace.
"Last year," Davis wrote, "Blasco had several dozen serious police incidents in which staff and others were harmed, had a serious altercation, issue or other incidents involving mental health, substance abuse, or of a sexual nature."
"These incidents do not make for a safe environment for the public or our employees," he wrote. "There was a significant cost to this service and a necessary one."
Gannon's Project NePTWNE and Blasco Library
The Gannon project at the library, called the Great Lakes Research and Education Center , would take up 3,280-square-feet of the 90,000-square-foot building. The project is part of Gannon’s multi-phased $24 million water quality initiative called Project NePTWNE , which is named after the Roman god of freshwater and the sea. Project NePTWNE stands for Nano & Polymer Technology for Water and Neural-networks in Erie.
The project has generated dissent. Critics say a public library is an inappropriate spot for the center and that the terms of the lease agreement — $7 a square foot for an initial 25-year period — is too favorable to Gannon.
A legal challenge came on June 27. Keep Our Library Public, a citizen-led protest group, sued Davis in Erie County Common Pleas Court and asked a judge to void the lease . The suit is pending, and how it will affect construction of the project is unclear.
Gannon anticipates construction will begin in late fall, with a projected opening in early 2025. A lawsuit could complicate the timeline.
Gannon is holding sessions to get public input on the project at the library, the university said on July 19 .
The sessions are scheduled on July 31 at the H.O. Hirt Auditorium in the Blasco Library complex. The first session runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Gannon is also accepting feedback online, from July 31 through Aug. 4, at gannon.edu/water . The survey will be active on July 31, Gannon said.
Gannon would have to go to court to expand police boundaries
The lawsuit over the lease has already pulled the water center project into court. It would end up in court again if Davis and Gannon decide to go ahead with a plan to have Gannon's police officers patrol Blasco Library.
The library is about a mile from Gannon's downtown Erie campus and outside the current jurisdiction of the Gannon police force, according to court records.
State law allows a nonprofit corporation such as Gannon that maintains buildings and grounds open to the public to apply to have a police force. But court orders are required to approve the force and its jurisdiction and to appoint officers.
Gannon got court approval for its police force in 2000, but not without questions about its jurisdictional boundaries.
Gannon applied for approval for a police force to have authority from Liberty Street to the west, Parade Street to the east, 12th Street to the south and Front Street to the north. The university said its intent was to have its officers handle summary offenses, such as underage drinking, and leave more serious cases to the Erie police.
At a hearing in April 2000, then-Erie County Judge Fred P. Anthony reduced the eastern boundary of the Gannon police's jurisdiction from Parade Street to French Street. He also listened to concerns from the city and the Erie police union about the boundaries still being too broad and not limited to Gannon's campus.
Anthony affirmed the final boundaries following a hearing in June 2000. They are Liberty Street to the west, Parade Street to the east, 12th Street to the south and Front Street to the north.
Under the agreement Anthony signed, Gannon's police officers are authorized to investigate low-level crimes — described as summaries and third-degree misdemeanors — in the "immediate and adjacent vicinity" of Gannon's campus, according to the court order. The deal called for Gannon police to focus on the university's sororities, fraternities, any off-campus housing, Gannon's property and Gannon students.
The jurisdictional boundaries remain in effect, with an exception, according to court records. In April 2008, then-Erie County Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. expanded the jurisdiction to include the Bayfront Convention Center and the Sassafras Street Pier, where the convention center is located.
However, according to the order, any Gannon police officer "shall exercise his or her police powers on the Sassafras Street Pier or in the Bayfront Convention Center only at an event or function sponsored by Gannon University."
Gannon would have to get a similar exception if it wants to include the Blasco Library in its police department's jurisdiction.
The library is located at 160 E. Front Street, just west of Holland Street, the next street east of French Street.
French Street stops at East Second Street in the area of the east bayfront. But if French Street extended to Front Street, the Blasco Library would be just east of French Street and thus outside the current boundaries for the Gannon force.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella .
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Davis said Gannon police 'will' patrol library under lease. County now says no plans set
Most Popular
Comments / 0