Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — City council Thursday night approved the purchase of bullet-proof vests with money forfeited from drug cases.
The resolution passed unanimously at council’s regularly scheduled meeting. The cost of 38 vests from Lakewood, New Jersey-based Red the Uniform Tailor is not to exceed $29,716.
City resident Sam Troy questioned whether the money was coming out of the general fund and or from a special grant. He acquiesced when told drug forfeiture funds will cover the cost.
Council vice chairman Bill Barrett, a former police chief, said the vests should be replaced every five years. “They do expire,” he said.
The council also approved applying for a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for a light emitting diode upgrade for 29 traffic signals throughout the city.
The council acted on additional traffic control measures. The intersection of Kidder and Laurel streets will have a four-way stop sign. The council approved a resolution by councilman George Brown to install a temporary, 90-day stop sign at the intersection of Horton and Firwood streets. The city’s traffic committee will follow up to determine if the stop sign will be permanent.
Brown credited the installation of a stop sign at the intersection of Plymouth Avenue and Simpson Street a month ago with making the neighborhood safer.
“It actually saved someone from being hit,” he said. A little boy chased a ball into the street and had the sign not been in place, the child would have been struck, he said.
Neighbors’ concerns about the intersection prompted him to request a temporary sign be installed, Brown said.