May 3, 2007 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

Uniontown City Council hired a full-time patrolman for the police department Wednesday. Council unanimously voted in favor of hiring David F. Hromada as a patrolman under a six-month probationary period effective that day at an annual salary of $31,861.

Hiring Hromada, who also is a police officer in Wharton Township, boosts the number of officers to 17, including the chief.

Police Chief Ronald Kozak, who has been asking council to hire officers since he was appointed chief last fall, thanked council for hiring the patrolman.

Hromada and another man were hired about a year ago to work 30 days as temporary officers to fill in for full-time officers who were off work at the time.

Kozak said he has known Hromada for long time and said he is a member of the Fayette County Drug Task Force.

The task force raided two houses in the city Wednesday morning, Kozak said.

He credited the task force, state police, agents from the state Attorney General’s office and city police for seizing pounds of cocaine in investigations recently conducted in the city.

“Almost five pounds of cocaine was taken off our city streets,” Kozak said.

Police called code enforcement administrator and fire Chief Myron Nypaver after noticing possible building code violations at one of the houses, which is rented, Kozak said.

Nypaver said he and four fellow firefighters, who also are code enforcement officers, responded and found that a resident of one of the houses on Lenox Street was operating a makeshift grocery store in the living room.

Two citations against the property owner are being prepared and the store will be shut down, he said.

The number and types of calls the police department has been handling shows why the additional police officer was needed, Kozak said.

In April, the department received 862 calls, which eclipsed the 817 calls received in March, he said.

The department made 79 arrests, issued 40 traffic citations, responded to 28 accidents, received reports of 16 assaults and had eight reports of gunshots being fired, Kozak said.

Councilman Blair R. Jones said council has to re-establish the city’s civil service commission if it wants to hire another officer.

He said council has to appoint a new set of commission members.

Solicitor Daniel Webster said the commission operates under a set of rules and regulations that council prepared.

The commission conducts tests for people apply for jobs as city police officers and provides council with a list of the three applicants who had the highest scores, Webster said.

Jones said the most recent list has expired.