The Ellicott Town Board discussing the need for more police officers during its monthly meeting Monday. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

FALCONER — The Ellicott Police Department is having issues finding part-time officers.

On Monday during the Ellicott Town Board meeting, officials discussed the issue regarding the lack of part-time officers with Chief William Ohnmeiss Jr.

Patrick Tyler, town councilman, said the department has 10 full-time officers, two sergeants and two part-time officers.

Ohnmeiss said this is the first time in more than 20 years he has had a problem finding part-time police officers.

“We haven’t had this problem before because part-timers were available,” he said. “We don’t have people and I don’t have an answer.”

Ohnmeiss discussed how the town needs part-time help to work when full-time officers are either sick or on vacation. He said there are usually three patrol cars on the road at one time and he is concerned that might not always be the case because of a lack of part-time officers. He added that the police academy graduated 30 officers and only four were from Chautauqua County. All acquired full-time jobs with other agencies after graduation, the chief said.

When asked how many officers he would need to alleviate the situation, Ohnmeiss said four. However, Tyler said there isn’t enough money in the town’s budget for four additional officers. He said the town has around $100,000 in reserves, which wouldn’t cover the salary and benefits for that many new officers.

Tyler said the Ellicott Police Department isn’t the only police department in the area having difficulty finding police officers.

The board went into an executive session to discuss the personnel issue at the end of its regular meeting.

In other business, Janet Bowman, town supervisor, said herbicide application permits have been filed with the State Department of Environmental Conservation. The town applied for 85.3 acres to treat Eurasian watermilfoil and 113.9 acres to treat cury-leaf pondweed

The board then discussed the contract with SOLitude Lake Management for the herbicide application. Town officials discussed how they were unsure if they approved the contract with SOLitude before receiving the permits from the DEC in past years. Town officials discussed how they will research what they’ve done in the past when it comes to the contract agreement with SOLitude and being approved by the DEC for herbicide treatment.

Tyler said a special meeting of the board could be called if they need to approve the contract with SOLitude by a certain date.