The Emmaus Police Department will lose another senior officer March 31 to retirement.

Sgt. Karl D. Geschwindt has been with the police department for 28 years and announced his retirement via letter presented to the Emmaus Borough Council at the March 21 meeting.

“I really enjoyed coming to work each day, being able to perform my duties alongside my friends who are also my brother officers and clerical staff,” Geschwindt wrote.

He said his decision to retire was “very difficult, yet easy.”

“It was difficult because I still enjoy doing the job; it was easy in knowing that the department will continue to operate at an unsurpassed level in years to come.”

“I must say Sergeant Geschwindt has really dedicated himself to the Emmaus Police Department and really is a big factor in our accreditation,” Mayor Winfield Iobst said.

“He’s an outstanding officer and he earned his retirement with all the years that he served this borough,” Council President Brent Labenberg said.

With the retirements of Geschwindt and Chief David Faust, the department is now in need of three officers. Borough Manger Shane Pepe said they have received 27 applications from people who want to join the department.

Pepe said they “will be street ready,” which means they will not have to go through the police academy for six months, but will just have to go through the department’s own field training.

In related business, Councilman Nathan Brown suggested it was time for the East Penn School District to invest in having a school resource officer at Emmaus High School.

After looking at the police incident report for 2015, Brown said the number of juvenile instances really stuck out to him. He said he wanted public safety to gather data to show to the school board.

Brown said many other school districts have an SRO such as Parkland and Southern Lehigh. He said Northampton has installed its own internal police department.

“I feel like we need to come to a formal agreement that the school wants to use our officers on a daily basis during the school year during school hours,” Brown said.

Labenberg mentioned the school board originally had it in their budget [SRO officer] for 2015-2016, but ended up cutting it.

Councilman Wesley Barrett agreed with the idea, and noted this could lead to something bigger such as continuous conversations with the school board.

“There was a period of time where we had quality conversations back and forth, and I felt in the last few years that has subsided,” Barrett said. He said he hopes council can rejuvenate the relationship and move forward in a positive direction.

In other business, council approved a charity bike race hosted by South Mountain Cycle & Café April 9. This 300-person charity ride will take place over 60 miles and will take bikers four to seven hours to complete. The only issue council has with this race is the placement of the requested two portable toilets. Pepe will contact the organizers to find a correct placement for the portable toilets.

Council unanimously voted to name Sgt. Charles Palmer as the current head officer of the police department until a new chief is hired to replace Faust.

Richard Hontz announced his retirement from being the part-time animal control officer for Emmaus. Hontz has been in this position for over 32 years. His retirement goes into effect July 1.

Ordinance 1139 passed its first reading, which deals with adding a residential handicapped parking sign in front of 224 Adrain St.

Troy Bower was hired as a full-time mechanic for the public works department.