Cheshire Explores Partnership with Lanesborough Police Department
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Select Board has been talking with the Lanesborough Police Department to determine if a partnership would be advantageous.
During initial discussions, it was believed that a 50/50 split of sharing services is not feasible. However, the town officials say the investigation into possible funding options are not over.
The Select Board has scheduled a meeting with interim Chief Timothy Garner, Lanesborough Chief Rob Derksen, and state Sen. Paul Mark to see if there are state monies or grants available for a regionalization-type arrangement, board Chair Shawn McGrath said at Last week's meeting.
Cheshire has five police officers and a chief; Lanesborough six full-time officers and multiple part-time officers and a chief. Both departments are seeking to construct new police stations.
Options include merging the department with a 50/50 cost split, which was determined to be expensive for Cheshire, a contractual arrangement in which the fee would cover additional officers to provide coverage, or other shared service arrangements that might bring costs down.
"I don't think we should shut the door on that," McGrath said.
Exploring these possibilities will likely take several months and he said Garner does not have any qualms about serving in the interim until decisions about the structure of the department can be made.
"He's aware of that, and would rather have us end at the right spot … I think an interim position would be hard to fill temporarily with a good candidate, and not knowing where it's going after that, it's hard to structure something like that," McGrath said.
Garner, who was the town's police chief for five years until his retirement in 2022, has been serving in as the interim chief since November, following the arrest of Michael Alibozek on charges of soliciting sex for a fee. Alibozek has been on unpaid leave since November.
More information on Alibozek's arrest here.
Tags: shared services,
