PINE GROVE - Pine Grove borough council voted in Thomas Trotter as the new police chief Thursday night.
Trotter had been a lieutenant and officer-in-charge before being named as chief of the 10-man department.
Council member Tony Gurski voted against Trotter as chief, declining to comment further after the meeting. Council member Paul Gantz was absent.
Trotter had been serving essentially in the capacity as chief, council President Larry Dubbs said. He will be paid his current salary.
Trotter is the current chief in a long line of chiefs for the department.
Prior to Trotter, Mark A. Resue resigned from the position in February 2011, just one month after his suspension by Mayor Kimberly Brown-Zerbe for unknown reasons. He resigned due to what he said was interference by Brown-Zerbe in his resignation letter.
Also, former Chief Joshua Reager was removed in 2009 as chief and had been appealing his removal in court. Before Reager, Christopher M. Thompson served as chief for only a year in 2007, replacing Kurt L. Emerich, who resigned after 18 years.
In other business, Pine Grove Area Middle School student Nicholas Lukacsina, 10, of Donaldson, was recognized by the mayor with a certificate of appreciation and by the office of state Rep. Mike Tobash, R-125, and the House of Representatives with a citation for his acts during a car crash Jan. 24. Riding with his mother and sister, the car skidded on ice, flipped on its passenger side, went off the road and hit a snowbank.
Nicholas unbuckled himself and his 3-year-old sister, Gabrielle, and went for help after forcing open the sunroof.
Brown-Zerbe was impressed with what he did.
"I absolutely think what you did was wonderful and you're my hero. What you did was super and a lot of people would not have thought that quick," she said.
Nicholas later gave the mayor roses.
He said his instincts kicked in.
"I just wanted to survive and it happened to me quickly," he said.
His mother, Christine Lukacsina, 43, said he was proud of her son.
"He went into automatic survival mode," she said.