How Windber has updated its police department with $450,000 in grants

WINDBER ― The borough’s police department has made significant strides over the past year to update its computer equipment and add an additional police officer – all without passing any extra costs onto local taxpayers, since federal, state and local grants have paid for those improvements.

Now the borough is taking another step forward by purchasing the Jefferson Avenue building that it has rented for the police department since 2014 – and again, state and local grant monies are helping to make that possible.

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'A big savings' for taxpayers

The borough has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development , with support from state Rep. Jim Rigby. The state grant will be matched with a $100,000 local grant from the Raymond DiBattista Charitable Trust to cover two-thirds of the building’s $300,000 purchase price, according to Windber Police Chief Andrew Frear.

Barry Jerley, trustee of the DiBattista fund, and Mike Thomas, borough mayor, joined Frear at the police station on May 30 to announce the building purchase and other grant funding the police department has received over the last year.

“You see all these other boroughs and townships don’t have police, and I don’t want to see that happen in our town,” Jerley said. “It’s a nice, quiet, peaceful town, and I don’t want to see that jeopardized because of loss of funds.”

Thomas said the borough has agreed to pay the remaining $100,000 in installments to the building’s current owner.

“I’d like to thank Chief Frear and Barry Jerley, the administrator of the Ray DiBattista Trust, for working with us on all these projects,” he said. “This building means a lot, to have our own home rather than throwing money away for rent every month. Once we get everything settled, we’ll own our building and it will be a big savings to the taxpayers of the borough.

“We’re going to be paying (the balance) incrementally, as though we were paying rent. The owner has been very willing to work with us to make that happen.”

In addition to the overall cost savings, Frear said acquiring the building will give the police department more storage room and an extra garage to park its vehicles indoors.

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More grant funding for the police department

The chief also announced the department received two additional grants over the last year to update its operations: A $92,000 technology grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for new computers and five in-dash cameras, and a $157,000 Cops or More grant to add one additional officer to the department, paying 75% of that officer’s salary and benefits for three years.

Frear said those grants were prepared and submitted with the assistance of Lauren Palmar from Aspire Grant and Development Partners, a professional grantwriting firm in Somerset.

In total, the grants for the building, the new computers and the additional officer add up to about $450,000, “which is a tremendous amount of money for us,” Frear said.

The Windber police department has 14 officers, five of whom are full-time, and serves approximately 5,500 residents in Windber, Paint and Scalp Level boroughs.

Thomas, a retired police officer, thanked Frear for helping the borough find funding to keep its police department up to date.

“Most people don’t realize the amount of technology involved in police work today: In-car cameras, body cameras – all of that (information) has to be kept secure on servers, and that equipment isn’t cheap,” he said.

“(Frear) works hard to get these grants and find the money that we need. You heard all the amounts, that’s a lot of money there. Without that (grants), we wouldn’t be where we are.”

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What is the Ray DiBattista Charitable Trust?

Jerley and his wife, Elizabeth, are trustees of the fund that was set up by the late Raymond DiBattista, a former Windber resident and Johnstown businessman who was active in several area organizations and donated to a variety of local educational, religious and community causes.

Since 2022, the trust has made donations of over $400,000 to the area, helping local police and fire departments, Windber Recreation Park, the Windber Veterans Park, the Windber Miners’ Memorial Day festival, Light Up Night and the Children’s Aid Home of Somerset County, among others.

Jerley thanked Ronald and Dennis Jaketic, Raymond DiBattista’s nephews, for supporting the trust's mission.

“The family has been really cooperative and supportive with me on these donations,” he said. “We’re glad to see his heritage is carrying on in helping the community.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: How Windber has updated its police department with $450,000 in grants