Cranberry supervisors are willing to extend police services for another year to neighboring Seven Fields, but they acknowledge that not everyone across the border is happy with the arrangement.

That's why Cranberry staff will spend the coming months working with officials from Pennsylvania and Seven Fields to evaluate whether a different payment formula would be more fair.

"We're always willing to talk and re-evaluate,'' Cranberry Manager Jerry Andree said.

The recent negotiations between Seven Fields and Cranberry were discussed at a public meeting of township supervisors Sept. 25. Although a vote on the terms of the agreement was not immediately taken, Cranberry supervisors expressed a willingness to continue the agreement with their neighbor, which began in 1993 after Seven Fields shuttered its own police department.

The formal documents are expected to be signed this month.

As it works now, Seven Fields pays roughly 8 percent of Cranberry's police budget because Seven Fields' population equals about 8 percent of Cranberry's. The township's annual police budget is about $3.5 million, so Seven Fields' corresponding bill for 2009 would be about $293,000.

Seven Fields officials have wanted a change and have been looking for alternatives to the arrangement with Cranberry. To date, the borough hasn't found any community to meet its needs.

Seven Fields Manager Thomas B. Smith said Adams and the Northern Regional Police Department, which serves Marshall, Pine, Bradford Woods and Richland, have expressed no interest in serving Seven Fields. Mars is willing to provide only part-time coverage, but Seven Fields wants to maintain around-the-clock coverage.

Seven Fields also is evaluating whether it should establish its own police department, which it hasn't had since its early years as a borough. Seven Fields seceded from Cranberry in 1983.

The next year, it hired a police officer who served for almost 10 years until he was furloughed and the borough began contracting with Cranberry.

Mr. Andree said the extension of the police agreement is for the 2009 calendar year, but Seven Fields will have until June 30, 2009, to inform Cranberry as to whether it wants to continue the arrangement.

The current five-year police agreement ends Dec. 31.

In the meantime, Seven Fields has been working with the Governor's Center for Local Government Services on alternatives to a population-based payment formula, one that would factor in the number of miles of roads, the number of incidents and the types of incidents.

Mr. Andree said the township is not opposed to considering other arrangements.