Washington Township's top cop to retire; new chief named

The Washington Township supervisors have set the structure for a change in the police department’s leadership.

Chief Scott Slagle is retiring after serving as chief for 27 years and working in the department for 33.

His departure is not a surprise, though. He filed for the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which is an irrevocable pension benefit, several years ago.

On Thursday, the supervisors unanimously voted to appoint Sgt. Jason Montgomery as acting police chief, effective Aug. 1.

“(Slagle) still has some time off to take, so he won’t officially be gone until Oct. 1,” Supervisors Chairman Rich Gardner said.

On Oct. 1, Montgomery officially will take over as police chief. He has been with the department for about 20 years, Gardner said.

“Scott has been training him, mentoring him since Jan. 1,” Gardner said.

Slagle joined the department as a patrolman in 1987 and served until July 1993, when he took a job with another police department. He returned three years later when the supervisors hired him as the chief, and he has remained in that position since.

DROP is available to police officers in Pennsylvania and allows them to continue working for up to 60 months after filing for the program.

Until the officer finally retires, payments from the pension plan are made into an account for him. When his retirement takes effect, the money accumulated in the account is paid to him in a lump sum.

Gardner and township Manager Lynn Stascak said that once an officer files for DROP, he is locked into retiring by a certain date. In Slagle’s case, Stascak said he would have to leave the department no later than Jan. 4.

Also, officials said township contributions to an officer’s pension plan are ended once he files for DROP.

In addition to appointing Montgomery as acting chief, the supervisors made two more moves concerning the police department.

They accepted the resignation of part-time Patrolman Cole Berg, effective July 11. Stascak said his time with the department was interrupted by a military deployment but came to about a year in total.

The supervisors hired Brian Bartrug as a full-time patrolman. Stascak said Bartrug is new to the department and comes from the Upper Burrell Police Department. His hiring is effective Aug. 1.