February 14, 2008
- (Rutland Herald)
- "Trustees
discuss fate of police department" -
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Article published Feb 14,
2008
Trustees discuss fate of police
department
By
Susan Smallheer Herald Staff
BELLOWS FALLS — Village trustees heard two different visions of the
future of police work in the village Tuesday. Now they just have to make
a decision.
The village's new police chief, Ron Lake, says he can keep the village
department going with a budget just under $900,000, slightly less than
an original projection of $1 million.
And the village's former police chief, Windham County Sheriff Keith
Clark, says he can save the village a lot of money — about $230,000 —
and staff the department full time for about $650,000 a year.
Saving money is an important topic in Bellows Falls, which has the
second-highest municipal taxes in the state, according to calculations
by Village Manager Jim Mullen.
Mullen said the trustees met with Clark and Lake, and a couple dozen
interested citizens Tuesday night to discuss the proposals. He said the
trustees will make a decision sometime before May 1, when the village
budget has to be finalized.
Mullen noted the final decision on the police department would rest in
large part with village voters, who will decide the village budget
during the village annual meeting in mid-May.
"This is the start of the budget process, and this was the first item
the Bellows Falls trustees wanted," said Mullen. "We're just at the
start of the process."
Mullen said Bellows Falls has had a village police department since the
1880s, but the high costs of policing and rising village taxes have
prompted the village to take another look.
He said the big cost savings on the sheriff's department side is that it
pays its deputies about $4 less an hour than the Bellows Falls village
does. And, he said, the sheriff's department, which is based in Newfane,
already has a dispatch center.
Clark, who left the department in late 2006 when he was elected to a
four-year term as county sheriff, said it was a matter of "economies of
scale" that he was able to offer savings in the neighborhood of 30
percent.
"I don't have to pay for a chief and I already have a dispatch center,
and my insurance is covered by other contracts," Clark said.
He said he checked with other sheriff's departments across the country
that were taking over small municipal departments and the cost savings
were similar.
Lake was appointed by Mullen to be the village's police chief just last
month as the village has struggled with interim or acting chiefs since
Clark left. Finally, the village brought in a $5,000 a month police
management consultant to run the department.
Lake, who used to work for the Windham County Sheriff's Department, but
wasn't rehired when Clark took over the department, couldn't be reached
for comment Wednesday about his proposed budget.
But Lake was told by Mullen that his chief's job could be short-lived
depending on what the trustees decide about the fate of the department.
Clark said his bid would include two full-time deputies on duty 2-4/7,
which is slightly more coverage than the Lake proposal. Mullen said
currently during the early morning hours from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. only one
officer is on duty, although another is on call.
Clark, who is a resident of Westminster, was on the Bellows Falls force
and was chief from 2003-06. But he noted the Bellows Falls Police
Department union came to the meeting Tuesday night to oppose his plan,
and said they wouldn't be interested in jobs with the sheriff's
department.
Clark had estimated he could hire up to three-quarters of the
department, but he said he wouldn't have any trouble filling the spots.
Unlike some police departments, Clark said he has no trouble filling his
vacancies, noting that it is a larger department and there is more
opportunity for advancement.
Despite the lower pay, Clark said the benefits were more generous,
including a cruiser for each fulltime officer that can be taken home.
"That's worth a lot," he said, noting officers were allowed to use the
cruiser to respond to fires if they were on volunteer fire departments,
or to coach youth sports leagues.
Lake didn't return a call for comment about his proposal.
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. |
