Officer promoted to sergeant

Jordan Angelo received the promotion as part of a livestreamed meeting of township commissioners.

Jordan Angelo is shown with his family and fellow officers after he received a promotion as part of a livestreamed Elizabeth Township meeting.

Elizabeth Township commissioners voted Monday to promote police Officer Jordan Angelo to sergeant in front of its first livestreamed audience.

Angelo, who was recommended by the Elizabeth Township Civil Service Commission and was sworn in by Magisterial District Judge Beth Mills, started as a police officer in 2010 in the Clairton/McKeesport area and then proceeded to work as an officer at Penn State University’s Greater Allegheny campus in McKeesport.

“We were fortunate enough to have him become a part of our team in 2015,” Elizabeth Township Police Chief Ken Honick said. “He has had a very honorable and very credited career, so we look forward to his future successes.”

Honick asked for Angelo’s family to come up and get pictures after he put a sergeant’s badge on Angelo, and said becoming a sergeant is “such a special moment not only as a township police family, but for the Angelo family as well.”

“It’s such a special night as a police officer, there is so much sacrifice that really comes from the member, but the family,” Honick said. “So we’re happy to see Jordan’s parents here, his wife and children, and his in-laws because they also make sacrifices as family for the hours of time Jordan gives to our community.”

Honick also thanked the community for being engaged with Elizabeth Township Police Department’s social media and stated that feedback provided through that outlet has helped with a critical missing person case. They were able to locate the person based on a call through one of their social media posts.

Over the last 90 days, Honick stated that there have been 234,000 interactions with the police’s social media pages related to the four communities they cover.

“(It’s) not just relevant to municipalities or missing persons, but other critical information we want to share with the community and just how grateful the community takes the time to private message us,” he said. “I just want to say thank you to the community and just how beneficial our social media footprint is with communicating to the community with ease and how grateful we are for their response back to it.”

Several months ago, the department also sent two members to a Pennsylvania State Police Car Safety Inspection class to become certified post accidents or during community outreach events.

The class also helped officers to be able to interact with members of the public who have small children and make sure the car seats they’re using are safe.

“As we talked about that process, I started thinking of unfortunately the hundreds of traffic accidents that we respond to not only in Elizabeth Township, but some of our mutual aid partners here in the region,” Honick said. “And I thought it would be to the benefit to those people we interact with in moments of tragedy that if we come across either a car seat that has been damaged from the accident or if we find someone that is in financial hardship need, it doesn’t need to be a public discussion or something that we need to vote on later on.”

That led to a motion for the purchase of child car seats for the department, not to exceed $550, which passed unanimously.

Honick advised the township to get multiple car seats for backup as police will distribute them on a “case by case basis.”

“We have car seats available to us in storage that we can quietly and confidently give to that parent and say ‘Sorry that we interacted under these circumstances today, but we just wanted for you and your family to be safe. Here’s a free car seat on behalf of Elizabeth township,’” Honick said.

Also Monday, commissioners:

• Approved the purchase of a $353,777.98 sewer camera truck from A&H Equipment.

• Ratified a vote from July 11 to accept the second amendment to the 2016 consent order agreement from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

• Approved the final payment of $16,688 to Swede Constriction for the township’s MS4 remediation project.

Blaine Hill Community Day will take place from 3 to 11 p.m. Saturday. The parade starts at 6 p.m. with fireworks at 10 p.m. Commissioners donated $500 to the fair.

The Pennsylvania Resources Council will host a Hard to Recycle Collection Event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Elizabeth Forward Middle School. All communities are invited to recycle big technology items such as TVs, printers, tires and more and should sign up ahead of time at prc.org/CollectionEvents or 412-488-7490.