AUSTINTOWN — The police department will reduce some costs while the municipality will use the general fund to maintain the department’s service levels as much as possible.

That was the essence of a statement released by trustees at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We will strive to maintain the quality of services that our residents are accustomed to and deserve,” said the statement read by Administrator Robert Santos. “However, given our budgetary situation, some changes will be necessary. These changes are intended to minimize their impact on operations, our residents and our employees.

The $2.4 million levy that would have generated $2.26 million for the Austintown Police Department failed Nov. 5 by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

Township officials said policing costs have increased to the point where the department will contribute about $1 million to the general fund by the end of this year. The new levy was intended to preserve state contributions that would have been lost if the municipality sought a replacement levy.

Trustees, Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito and Police Chief Robert Gavalier said the township cut $200,000 from the police budget by minimizing training programs, changing how staff of the department was changing positions and deferring certain vehicle replacement costs.

On Monday, Gavalier said the department would not replace an officer who retires in January, nor one who is expected to retire later next year. Other officers who retire or leave the department will also not be replaced, including four existing vacancies.

In September, Austintown was awarded a $750,000 Community Oriented Policing Services grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, which will keep six officers hired through the program for another three years.

Gavalier said the department would also scale back some police car maintenance agreements and defer vehicle replacement, replacing only one or two cars per year instead of the usual three.

He said for now, Austintown will keep one officer on the Mahoning County Drug Task Force and three on the Mahoning County Human Trafficking Task Force.

Administrators said the municipality will have to make sacrifices to keep the police force operating as it is.

“We remain committed to maintaining patrol staffing levels through the use of our general fund,” Santos said. “With the use of our general fund, our township services that use or rely on the general fund will be limited. We remain committed to protecting and serving the Austintown community with the resources available to us.

“If that means taking out of the general fund and it causes a deficit in other departments down the road, that’s what we will do to continue to maintain the services you deserve from our police department consistent with how we’re doing it today,” said Administrator Bruce. Shepas.