ASHFIELD — Police Chief Diane Wilder will be retiring on Sept. 1, after serving as chief for about 2½ years.
Wilder, of Buckland, was first hired as a town officer in 2010 and became its chief in 2014, when former chief Patrick Droney retired.
“I would like to thank the Selectboard for giving me the opportunity to work as the chief of police,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “It is with a heavy heart that I must advise you that I will be retiring.”
Before advertising for a new police chief, the Selectboard wants to consider whether the town needs a full-time police chief, or whether it could partner with neighboring towns to share a police chief.
Selectboard member Thomas Carter said he thinks a police chief search committee should consider the possibility of sharing a regional police chief with three or four towns. He noted that Hawley needs a part-time chief, and there may be other nearby towns Ashfield could share a chief with. He noted the success the town has had in joining Hilltown Ambulance, a regional ambulance service.
Finance Committee member Ted Murray, a former Selectboard member, said his former board studied the issue soon after police Chief John Svoboda resigned in 2010. He said the board met with Shelburne and Buckland police and with selectmen, but in Ashfield, the regional proposal “was not well received.”
Murray remarked that the town had a lot of police department turnover, because new officers who get training in Ashfield move on to police jobs with larger departments, where there is opportunity, more work hours or the chance for more promotion.
“I’m not sure you couldn’t get a chief serving a few towns and then full-time officers in towns,” Murray said. “You want a full-time officer who gets to know the town well; but you don’t have to have a (full-time) chief.”
Carter said town officials would have more time to explore the issue if the town had an interim chief “to give us 15 to 20 hours (per week) of support.”