Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell Liberty Law Director Cherry Poteet and Liberty police Chief Ray Buhala, far right, swear in three new police officers at the trustees meeting Monday. From left are officers Lee Padula, Landon Price and Anthony Baglama.

LIBERTY — Police officials are looking to keep their promise to use the township’s 2.5-mill levy, which the community passed in May, to help with police staffing by bringing in some new faces.

Township officials saw three new police officers join the department’s ranks on Monday, swearing in Lee Padula, Landon Price and Anthony Baglama ahead of official business.

While Padula’s swearing-in was a formality after he was approved by trustees at a May meeting and started last month, they later approved Price and Baglama as full-time probationary patrol officers at a rate of $26.44, effective immediately.

Liberty police Chief Ray Buhala said Price and Baglama are recent Youngstown State Police Academy graduates, which means they’ll require a full field training program that will take a minimum of three months.

“He’s (Padula) more of (an) accelerated field training — you know, learn the roads, our way of doing things,” Buhala said.

Buhala said the hirings bring the department to 19 officers — just one person away from being fully staffed after a departure.

“I’m excited; I’d like to thank the community for the support of that levy,” Buhala said. “Again, we made that promise with the passage of the levy, we’d get our staffing back up, and we’ve made that our priority.”