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Changing our Communities, one person at a time…

Our Past

"In order to know where you'r going, You need to know where you've been"

I believe that it is was once said " in order to know where your going you need to know where you came from". Not much is known about the creation of the Beaver Police Department, What we have been able to find is from a book that was created in 1950 for the Beaver Sesquicentennial, it gives us a very brief history of the Police Department.

I quote from the Sesquicentennial " In the early years Beaver had constables who served as law enforcement officers. There was one police man during the 1880's, and from the beginning the force has slowly been increased. Beaver is now under police protection 24 hours a day. The force has seven men, with Lyle C. Kimple, Police Chief. All members of the staff have been trained by the F.B.I. The Department is equipped with 24 hour radio, One car, and one motorcycle. All school crossings are under police protection during the school term. Beaver has had no fatal traffic accidents in over seven years, and has won the National Traffic safety Honor Roll Award for the past three years. The citizens are proud of the friendly manner of our police, and of their excellent protection of life and property "

Lyle Kimple was Chief of Police from January 13, 1942 Until March 14, 1967, He was also the Borough Manager from November 16, 1951 Unitl his death on June 29, 1972, He was buried in the Beaver Cemetery.

After Chief Kimple Retired March of 1967, the position was filled by Charles Kreps. Kreps was Chief of Police until 1983. During his time the Police Department had six officers.

In 1983 Anthony Hovanec became the Chief of Police, At this time there was Six officers. Before he retired in 2008 the Police Department began to handle the police services for neighboring Vanport Township. The staff of officers grew to eight full time officers.

This leads us to our present Chief of Police, Daniel L. Madgar. Chief Madgar took over the department in 2008. He currently is in charge of
eight full time officers and nine part time officers. Chief Madgar is a graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy.

Mayor Linn

Robert P. Linn (December 27, 1908–August 22, 2004) was the longest-serving mayor in the United States. Linn, a Republican, served 58 years as the mayor of Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Linn was born in Burgettstown and grew up in Beaver. He worked for the Duquesne Light Company, and in 1945 was approached by a group of Republicans who wanted to defeat the incumbent mayor, a position then known as burgess. Initially, he did not want the job, but later gave in. Afterward he changed his mind, taking out a newspaper advertisement telling people to vote for his opponent. He won the election anyway, and took office on January 2, 1946. Linn continued to serve as mayor of the next five decades. The position's original salary was $2,500 per year.

In 1995, he was officially listed in Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-serving mayor in the United States; in a 2002 interview, he said his major accomplishments in office was starting Streetscape, a town beautification project that replaced concrete sidewalks with red bricks and removed power lines from the main street.

Linn died in his sleep at his home in 2004 at the age of 95 and in the middle of his fifteenth term. The town council appointed councilman Thomas Hamilton to replace him.