PLEASANT HILL, Ohio -- Residents of Pleasant Hill are no longer seeing a police force in their town. Now, deputies in Miami County have taken over the responsibility of patrolling the town.

The village council disbanded the village police department after voters in May defeated a police levy.

On a handshake, deputies have been patrolling village streets for the past several weeks, but now Miami County commissioners have signed an agreement with the village.

The village council agreed to pay the sheriff department $25,000 a year for no less than 24 hours of coverage in town a week over and above the routine patrols through town.

The contract between the village and the department runs until Dec. 31, 2006.