Laurel: To pressing pause. Derry council is expected to consider a two-year moratorium before bringing the borough’s police dog program back into play.
The program was disbanded in October following the death of police dog Smoke in August. Smoke was euthanized after being injured in fight with a family dog in the backyard of handler and police Chief Randy Glick.
No charges were pressed by the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office after Smoke’s death. However, there are still questions in the community about what happened, and how and what can be done to make sure another dog isn’t put at risk.
Council will meet Tuesday. If they decide to place a two-year pause on any use of police dogs, it would give adequate time to address those issues and reassure the community. It also would allow time to decide if a canine program is really necessary and, if so, to find the best way to bring it back.
Lance: To too much time. On Monday, Pennsylvania Western University’s trustees approved the 25-member committee that will conduct the search for a new university president.
Seriously? It has been a year since Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson stepped down from her position as the first president of the new institution formed from merging the State System of Higher Education’s California, Clarion and Edinboro universities. In December, interim president Lorraine Bernotsky was tapped to become West Chester University’s president. She leaves for that job in July.
For 12 months, there hasn’t been progress on the actual hiring. The State System’s Board of Governors and Chancellor gave the trustees permission to choose the people who will select the candidates to propose to the trustees, who will then hand them over to the State System for finalization.
“Just as we carefully and deliberately selected the members of the presidential search committee, we will be thorough in our selection of the next leader for PennWest,” spokeswoman Wendy Mackall said. “Our hope is to do that in the coming months, but the priority, of course, will be to find exactly the right person to guide our university forward.”
Is this really thoroughness, or is it just an example of the slow wheel of bureaucracy that is the State System and its campuses?
