The Salisbury Township Police Department is expediting the process to get rid of abandoned vehicles in the township.

On a recent survey of abandoned vehicles in one area of the township, “I estimated there’s 30 to 40 vehicles,” Salisbury Township Police Officer Bryan Losagio said.

A vehicle can be determined to be abandoned if its registration is out-of-date, if it’s not inspected or if it has an inspection that’s not up-to-date.

“We get a lot from Allentown. I don’t know what’s so special about our streets, but they drop them off,” Losagio said.

“The ones on private property, that’s a whole other disaster,” Losagio said during the workshop following the Feb. 13 township board of commissioners’ meeting.

Losagio explained the township police department process for getting rid of abandoned vehicles can require four trips back and forth to the vehicle and an excessive amount of work hours on the part of a township police officer. “It’s a lot of time,” Losagio said.

“It can take a month to get a car off the street. It’s ridiculous,” Losagio said.

What’s proposed, which received the backing by consensus of commissioners during the workshop, is to fill out the required police department incident report and place a warning sticker on an abandoned vehicle, stipulating the owner has five days to get rid of the vehicle.

“We’ll come back in five days,” Losagio said. If the abandoned vehicle is still there, a tow truck company will be called to remove the vehicle. “It’s gone,” Losagio said.

Typically, an abandoned vehicle is towed to a storage lot. The vehicle owner must pay the tow truck fee and storage fee. After an unspecified number of days, the owner of the lot can have the vehicle taken to a scrapyard.

In answer to a question from a reporter for The Press, Losagio said the township would not be responsible for paying the tow truck fee for an abandoned vehicle.

Commissioner Joanne Ackerman said of the present township abandoned vehicle policy, “The way you have it now, it’s very expensive.”

Said board of commissioners President Debra Brinton, “We don’t want to become Allentown’s junkyard or anyone’s junkyard.

“I like what you came up with,” Brinton added.

Noted Salisbury Township Chief of Police Kevin Soberick of Losagio, “Bryan did his homework.

“Once the word’s out, there may be fewer [abandoned vehicles].

“It really will clean up the township,” Soberick said.

The department will use computerized license-plate readers to check vehicle registration.

The new process is expected to be in effect as of July 1.

Commissioner James Seagreaves suggested taking a photograph to document the date and location of an abandoned vehicle.

“We’re giving the sticker as a courtesy. We’re being nice by putting a sticker on it,” Soberick said, noting a police report of the abandoned vehicle is sufficient for enforcement.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Feb. 27, in the meeting room at the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.