By Pattie Pacella, Neighb News Correspondent
Acushnet Police Chief Michael Alves informed the Selectboard of the retirement Gary Rousseau effective 10/2, and asked that he be appointed as a special police officer, at the Selectboard meeting on 9/25.
The new status would allow Mr. Rousseau to work details and the dispatch desk.
The Selectboard congratulated Mr. Rousseau on his retirement and approved the appointment as Special Police Officer.
In another matter, Chief Alves asked for a requisition to hire five part-time police officers. He told the board advised that it takes almost a year to get officers off the civil list and then into the academy to become officers. He explained that the move would allow more base people to be on a shift and he has noticed over the last few years that the new generation was not overtime driven. The Selectboard approved the requisition for the five part-time officers.
Chief Alves also discussed the process of hiring a Deputy Police Chief. He said this person would be his successor and is something he has discussed in the past.
Selectboard member Roger Cabral said it was something he remembers reading earlier in the year, and would like some time to review again before he has to make a decision.
Chief Alves said he is close to retirement and by hiring a deputy Police Chief he or she would be in line in 18 months to two years to get the Department running as he envisioned before his retirement.
He explained that the Chief’s role would be the overall planning of the Department and the Deputy Chief would be running the day to day operations.
Mr. Alves also explained that they have recently hired a full-time Administrative Assistant and that has taken a lot of the administrative work from him. He asked the Selectboard to look at the long term department effects with the proposed changes.
The Board took the suggestions under advisement and will review in the weeks to come.
In other business, Town Administrator Brian Noble reported that he and Veteran Agent Ray Cormier have had a discussion with Fairhaven’s Town Administrator, Mark Rees, about an Inter-Municipal Veterans’ District Agreement.
Mr. Noble stated that it was only a discussion at this point, since the Selectboard has only given him a yellow light to proceed. He said they may be far away from a solution, however, they are hoping for a proposal by the end of the year.
On the same note, Mr. Noble stated that he would be meeting on Thursday about the Veterans Housing at the Russell Memorial Library building, and the possibility of constructing seven units there.
He said it is a positive step in the right direction.
The Selectobard also announced that they had approved a three-year contract for the Fire Chief, Kevin Gallagher. Chief Gallagher thanked the Board for the three-year contract, stating that in the 15 years he has been with Acushnet it was the first time he had a contract.
•••
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News at: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Y6V5ARRYH689G
Click here to download the entire 9/27/18 issue: 09-27-18 MillicentOpenHse
