LEYDEN — In preparation for Thursday’s meeting between members of the Bernardston and Leyden selectboards and finance committees, the Public Safety Advisory Committee discussed preliminary budget ideas for an interim shared policing agreement between the towns on Wednesday night.
The committee said Bernardston Police Chief James Palmeri had laid out what basic call coverage would look like, but it would be up to the Selectboard to determine how many hours police would be working in town. Palmeri has suggested 80 to 100 hours of police coverage in Leyden per month, which would include administrative work, licensing and other office work, said committee Chair Elizabeth Kidder.
“That number of hours could fluctuate depending on how much the town wants to pay,” Kidder said. “We’ll have more sense after the meeting of where we’re heading.”
The interim shared policing agreement, Kidder said, is a “simple, straightforward” pact designed to let the towns “get used to working together” as they determine if a permanent agreement would be successful. In the interim agreement, Leyden will pay a to-be-determined amount of money to Bernardston each month for policing services. In essence, Kidder continued, “Bernardston is a vendor to the town of Leyden” in this temporary agreement.
“To know what the costs are, you need to work together for a while,” Kidder said. “When you get to the (permanent) agreement … it gets down to who buys the toilet paper for the substation.”
Selectboard member Erica Jensen said approval of the agreement would depend on the financial details ironed out between the two towns.
“For me, it will boil down to the finances,” Jensen said. “I think it’s going to come down to the dollars.”
A permanent agreement would have to be approved at both towns’ Town Meetings.
The police reform bill, which was signed by Gov. Charlie Baker at the end of 2020, and its expensive effects on small towns was also brought up by members of the committee, the public and the Selectboard.
Jensen said “Leyden can’t afford the future of policing” and that a shared policing agreement would be beneficial to both towns.
“Small towns cannot afford the administrative work,” Jensen said. “We will need to help each other in the future and now is the time to start.”
Public Safety Advisory Committee member Jack Golden agreed with Jensen’s statement, but said he has a “slight reservation” that the town is moving toward the shared policing agreement while a feasibility study on the town’s emergency services is being undertaken by the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management. The town received a $187,000 in March Efficiency and Regionalization grant to work with the Collins Center.
“The only thing I feel funky about is we’re having this group come in — the Collins Center — to do a study, but we’re sort of jumping the gun a little bit by moving forward with this agreement now. Once we make this agreement, we’re done with any possibility of doing our own policing,” Golden said. “I totally believe our future is having regional policing, but I just feel a little funny.”
Kidder said there is “still time to back off the agreement” if the Collins Center finds that Leyden can support its own police force. Either town can pull out of the agreement on 30 days’ notice.
As the Leyden Selectboard and Finance Committee meet with their Bernardston counterparts, the Public Safety Advisory Committee is working to set up a May 4 public forum to inform residents about the possible shared policing agreement and to familiarize them with representatives from the Collins Center.
The Public Safety Advisory Committee will reconvene for its next meeting on Wednesday, April 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Leyden Town Offices.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.