Four officers are expected to join the Ross Police Department next month.

Township commissioners made "conditional offers of employment" to the men Monday, pending the outcome of psychological and physical testing. They are expected to begin work March 7.

Ross currently deploys 40 officers, including Chief Ralph Freedman, with additional vacancies expected as the result of retirements and medical leaves in 2010. Plans call for hiring an additional four recruits this summer to return the department to its full complement of 43.

The men were the top-ranked candidates identified by the township's civil service board, after written, oral and physical agility tests.

The new hires are Balazs Devenyi, Jonathan Killmeyer, William G. Snyder Jr. and Sean Stafiej. Their first-year salary is $50,730. All are police academy graduates and will be probationary employees for a year.

Commissioners also agreed on two changes in police hiring procedures. They approved expanding the list of eligible candidates for future police jobs from 15 to 25 hopefuls. Top-scoring candidates are eligible to be hired for one-year after testing. That period, however, can be extended for a second year by commissioners.

Commissioners asked that the civil service commission inform them when an eligibility deadline is approaching.

In the past, the township lost chances to hire officers because their eligibility had ended, Commissioner Gerald O'Brien said.

First Published: February 11, 2010, 10:45 a.m.