WILTON — The Board of Selectpersons has set April 1 as the tentative date for a public meeting to discuss options for partnering with the town of Jay on shared police coverage.
The board agreed Tuesday to take a different path from the Jay Select Board in considering four options presented last month by the Wilton-Jay Police Collaboration Committee.
The Jay Select Board voted Feb. 23 to ask Wilton to contract with Jay to police both towns — the third of the committee’s four options — while the two towns work out how to implement the fourth option, a “quasi‑municipal corporation” jointly run to provide police services.
“I thought it was a premature decision,” Wilton Board of Selectpersons Chair David Leavitt said Tuesday of the Jay board’s vote last month.
The Wilton board members referred several times to an email they had received from Jay notifying them of the Jay board’s vote.
“I respect Jay’s expedience,” Leavitt said, “but it was always about bringing it to the citizens first.”
After discussing details of the proposals, the board agreed Tuesday to set April 1 for the public meeting, preferably at Academy Hill School, if available. Leavitt said the board should let townspeople “know about the meeting on April 1 to find out more (about the options) and to take a straw poll.” He noted that a straw poll of those at the meeting would not be binding.
This was the Wilton board’s first discussion of the plans presented by the committee. The discussion had been postponed from the Feb. 17 meeting because two members of the Board of Selectpersons were absent.
Selectwoman Nancy Allen asked how a merged department, such as one formed through the quasi‑municipal corporation, would affect police response times.
Chief Ethan Kyes of the Wilton Police Department said response times would be about the same, with an officer on duty and patrolling in each town at all times.
“There would also be a supervisor on duty who could help respond to calls,” he said.
Responding to Allen’s second question, the chief said the town has not studied the pattern of calls, but that calls “seem typically to be near the Police Department’s office” on Main Street, near Academy Hill School.
He added that car crashes tend to occur on Route 2, which is easily accessible for officers from most parts of town.
Allen asked whether adding a detective, as recommended by the committee for the quasi‑municipal corporation, would improve Wilton’s current rate of resolving cases, now at 55 percent.
“We hope so,” Kyes said.
However, some crimes, such as gas station drive‑offs, are especially difficult to solve, which holds down the town’s clearance rate.
Kyes added that his department had just resolved a $7,000 theft case and was wrapping up another case that is 2 years old.
Allen said the plans presented by the Wilton-Jay Police Collaboration Committee seem heavy on management staffing. The proposal to contract all policing to one town would include a chief, a deputy chief, a lieutenant, two sergeants — plus a sergeant assigned to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency — and a corporal serving as a school resource officer. It would also have nine patrol officers.
As outlined by the committee, the quasi‑municipal corporation would have a chief, a deputy chief, a lieutenant, two sergeants, a sergeant assigned to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, a corporal in addition to the school resource officer and a detective. It would have eight patrol officers, and the corporal would spend most of his or her time on patrol.
Kyes said that because both departments struggle to retain officers, supervisors spend much time answering questions that more experienced officers would not need to ask. He added that reporting requirements are becoming more complicated, pulling officers away from patrol.
Allen compared Farmington’s police operation to a combined Wilton-Jay operation.
Farmington has 7,593 people in an area of nearly 56 square miles. Wilton and Jay together have 8,455 people in 90 square miles. Farmington has 13 police officers, while the committee’s proposals suggest 17 or 18 for Wilton-Jay.
“Why do we need more?” she said.
Kyes said that when Farmington is shorthanded, it sometimes has only one officer on duty.
The plans for Wilton-Jay would always have at least two officers on duty.
“Sometimes,” Kyes said, “we’re busier than the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.”
Wilton may have as many as 18 calls a day, especially in the summer, he said.
Leavitt said the committee had discussed allowing Wilton to place a proposal for police cooperation on the June 9 primary election ballot.
If both towns agree on a course of action, they would have to work together to put it in place.
Wilton Town Manager Maria Greeley said that once a course is chosen, the towns could set up a committee to work out the details.
“That’s when you put the rubber to the road,” Leavitt said.
The towns of Winthrop and Monmouth have agreed to merge their police operations. They plan to set up a commission beginning July 1 to work out the details.
In her report to the Board of Selectpersons, Greeley said town roads are now posted for heavy loads. She said the town transfer station will shift to summer hours March 11, with Wednesday hours changing to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
She also said nomination papers are due at the Town Office by April 10, and there are vacancies on the Finance, Conservation and new Fire Department committees.
