Six dispatchers for Greenville-West Salem Township police are still on the job because they are needed to monitor cells in the Greenville jail.

Monday was to have been the employees' last work day, Police Chief Tom Strahler said in March. But Wednesday, dispatchers were still working and Strahler said they will be until the end of the month.

Because of the Greenville's fiscal crisis, Mercer County 911 is taking over the department's dispatching and Mercer County Regional Council of Governments will begin supervising the jail cells in the borough building, eliminating the need for the six borough employees.

The state's fiscal recovery plan for Greenville requires the borough to stop operating its own dispatching and rely totally on 911 and to work out an agreement with COG to monitor the jail cells.

COG is going to take over the lockup May 1, so the dispatchers/lockup attendants are needed until then, Strahler said. Once it takes over, COG will call in attendants as needed from a pool of attendants who are on call.

Strahler said the department is open to suggestions about how the department can maintain an around-the-clock dispatch presence at the station while saving the borough money.

The borough faces a debt of $1.5 million, the result of misspent bond money and financial mismanagement. Greenville last year applied for and was granted distressed community status under Pennsylvania's Act 47. As a distressed community, the state provides management help and loan money until the town gets back on its feet.