Gaston May Get New Police Department

The agency shut down a year-and-a-half ago.

The mayor at the time, Larry Sharpe, said it was because of budget issues. Sharpe resigned, and then was arrested on charges of taking money from the town.

But with a new mayor and town council committed to improving Gaston, talk of reviving the department has begun.

The town has applied for a Justice Assistance Grant to build their own law enforcement team.

"I do see a need for it and I believe it'll be a good thing for the town to get it back up and going again," says Mayor Troy Bivens.

Bivens is doing everything he can to see that need for a police department is filled, a void currently being taken care of by the Lexington County Sheriff's Department.

"It gets kind of difficult in the legal realm, county trying to enforce a municipal ordinance that technically county did not create," he says. "Obviously, you're gonna have that personal touch, where your officers get to know everyone locally."

He and members of town council took a big step toward that this past March, applying for the grant. "From the point whenever we did not have a police department, we did want it back and we started working on that and trying to figure out ways to make it happen," says Bivens.

If the town gets all the money it requested in the grant, they'll have enough for four full-time and one part-time officer, including their vehicles. But, it's still a couple of months until they find out how much protection they can provide. "There's been a lot of people that have asked, a lot of municipalities and counties. So what they did was they pushed the date back to August," Bivens explains.

Bivens is hoping to hear back sometime during that month and while it's not a guarantee, they're doing it this way to save the people in Gaston money. "We're trying to do it this without adding a burden, especially on people with fixed incomes, cause we have a lot out here," he says, "There's opportunities, but you've gotta qualify and you've gotta know who to ask for it and that's what we're trying to do... Hopefully, it's enough to get us something to help us out here because the public wants it and council agrees and I agree with it."