Village of Lancaster resident Paul Nosbisch Jr. addressed the Lancaster Town Board Monday night and opined that they did, suggesting that the board consider adding more police to the force.

Nosbisch declared that with the change in the board makeup this would be a good time to bring this matter forward; especially for the sake of police safety. Saying that he has done his own studies, along with talking to other people who do like studies, he suggests the town apply for a grant. He remarked that there is a formula in place now on how municipalities should be staffed.

Nosbisch: As I drive around the town, no matter where you go I cannot believe the number of housing units going up. This huge growth brings in more people and businesses – all the hotels going up, and the new one on Transit. We all know we have a lot of calls there. We would all be safer.

How can any police officer, especially second shift… Chief Gill tells me that’s a high volume call. Even in day time I see a police car rushing from one end of town down Transit to the other because you know there are calls and they are going on to the other side of town.

We need to really look at this again because the last Supervisor took a different approach. The police are patrolling such a vast area now; so many additional streets. There is no way that with the lack of police officers in the town that all calls can be answered and/or in a timely manner. There needs to be a brand new grant, like I said.

As the town has grown the fire departments have been given the right apparatus to do the right job. A police cruiser has been cut from the force. If an apparatus was cut from the fire department all hell would break out by this town board; but it has happened to the police.