Brownsville considers letter from public housing residents requesting police presence

BROWNSVILLE – Borough council members are discussing a letter from residents of Mulligan Manor Apartments, asking them to provide a borough police presence in their 2nd Street building.
“We live in a building that is supposed to be secure, but we do not feel safe here anymore,” council member Paul Synuria read from the letter, which he said had 52 signatures.
The letter said residents had seen drug deals in the building and the apartment parking lot and requested police presence at various hours both day and night.
Mulligan Manor is a public senior housing facility, overseen by the Fayette County Housing Authority.
Council President Jack Lawver said that the Fayette County Housing Authority had paid the borough $25,000 in the past for “above-baseline services,” or more than one patrol per shift.
“Baseline service was the patrol around the units,” Lawver said, referring to Mulligan Manor, Snowden Terrace and South Hill Terrace. ” … Anything above that, we recorded the time and billed them monthly.”
Lawver said re-establishing a similar agreement with the housing authority could be another way to help fund a borough police department, which council considered abolishing last year amid budgetary concerns.
“To give (Mulligan Manor residents) a premium service when your taxpayers aren’t even getting that premium service, it’s really not fair,” borough Solicitor Krisha DiMascio said. “… We had a hard time even covering our basic service for our police, as we all know, and we’ve been trying to hold onto them for dear life. To provide other people who basically are in a tax-free building a premium service is difficult.”
“This is a way to bring income in,” Synuria said.
Council member Lester Ward recommended meeting with housing authority representatives about the matter.