Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/26/2021
GRANBY – The final two candidates for the chief of police position were announced at the July 19 Granby Selectboard meeting.
Town Administrator Christopher Sullivan began the meeting by reading a letter from the Police Chief Search Committee to the board. The letter announced the selection of two finalists from a pool of eight candidates.
The committee members wrote six interviews had been scheduled as a result of the town’s advertising for the position. One applicant, they said, did not have the necessary qualifications for the position and another received an offer of employment from another community.
In total, five interviews were conducted due to a sixth candidate declining an interview, the letter stated. The reason for the applicant declining the interview, the according to the letter, was due to “hearing a Selectboard member had been in the police station, stating that the town would be hiring from within the department and not to worry as they were being covered.”
No member addressed the statement, and the two final candidates proposed by the committee and sent forward to the Selectboard were announced to be Granby resident Kevin C. O’Grady and Athol resident Nicholas Maroni.
O’Grady was appointed interim chief of police after former Chief Alan Wisthart retired at the beginning of July. Currently, Maroni serves as a lieutenant for the Gardner Police Department.
Another letter came from School Committee member Audrey Siudak regarding the upkeep of two fields, the Dufresne and Brown-Ellison Fields. She said she had seen talk on social media and was curious why the town was not allowing private residents to go in on their free time and maintain the fields. Martin said his concern was the liability the town would be taking on.
“The problem I have is if we allow private residents to come in and mow on our property is a liability. They get hurt, whatever, they throw a rock, they hit somebody, they hit somebody’s car, they break something, we’re liable,” he said. “I cannot expose the town to that type of a liability.”
He said “the only other thing” that they could do was for the board to create a parks committee whose only job would be to maintain the fields due to the amount of mowing. Member Glen Sexton said the amount of rain had “slowed down the mowing” as the fields were wet and the mower was sinking into the fields. Martin said mowing had taken place in the rain during the previous week.
He went on to say that people felt “they had the right” to use the town mower to help maintain the fields. However, he emphasized that only town employees were allowed to use town equipment due to the liability. Sexton said he didn’t want people to think that the town was not aware of the issue, “because we are,” however, he agreed that the town should not take the liability
“Hopefully when the sun starts shining again, we’ll have the opportunity to get back and the fields cut,” he said. Sexton went on to say the Facebook page “Granby Town Meeting” was not a town-authorized page.
“There’s a lot of things being put on there,” he said. “I would ask people instead of putting negative comments on Facebook, reach out to this office, inquire about it and get the correct information.”
He went on to say it was “not fair” to town employees and others as it made it appear as though “we neglect town playgrounds,” which he said was not the case.
Patty Gambarini from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPA) then gave a presentation on the town’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness action report grant status. Gambarini said the PVPA, who was subcontracted to work with the town, had done quite a bit of work in the recent months and their deadline had been extended into 2022.
She said while it “used to be farmers and sailors only worried about the weather,” that was not the case anymore. She referenced East Street in Granby, which had previously collapsed due to localized flooding issues. She said this was becoming common as the infrastructure could not support the extreme weather events that had been taking place.
She went on to say the traditional way of disposing of wastewater from storms by letting it wash down streets and into storm drains was no longer working and suggested an update of the town’s bylaws to add a stormwater section. She said it would be “bare-bones” and outlined which types of businesses would be required to apply for stormwater permits.
She said logging and agricultural facilities, which meet certain criteria, would be exempt from this as well as redevelopment activities, repairs to stormwater treatment systems deemed necessary by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and emergency work by the DPW.
Martin then went on to request that the board declare the playground equipment at the West Street School as surplus property. He said with regards to the playground equipment, he had received an offer from someone who would be willing to remove the equipment for free.
Sexton asked if the town could use the equipment for anything, but Martin said it was not due to the liability involved. Ultimately, the board agreed to allow the individual to take the equipment, permitting that agreements could be met and moving it would not create a new liability with regards to the state the area would be left in.
Crystal Dufresne, who serves as the chair of the Charter Days Committee, then proposed a food truck day in the town. She said the event, “which would kind of be like a fall festival” would take place on Oct. 9 with a rain date of Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. She said they were planning for two live bands, a kickball tournament for children in town, a ceremonial bonfire and potentially hosting a movie in a park.
Sexton questioned if there would be alcohol at the event, and she said only if there could be a solution that would appease everyone. She said they would like to have the American Legion Post 266 present at the event with a beer tent from 10 a.m. until about 9 p.m. Sexton said it sounded like a good idea. When asked about where in Dufresne Park it would take place, she said they would stay on the gazebo side, and they were estimating that about 160 would be in attendance at the event at any given time throughout the day. She said while they would not advertise for the event, they could not stop people from out of town from attending the event. Dufresne added that they were hoping for at least 10 food trucks, and they would not be asking any vendors who sell products or goods to be in attendance.
After both Sexton and board member Richard Beaulieu agreed she could move forward with the event, she went over police detail for the event. Dufresne went on to outline where and how many police officers would be located in each area. Dufresne said she was worried about the cost of police detail she had been given and they were hoping to break even. She explained that the main source of revenue for the event for just 200 people would be the attending food trucks, and with having to pay for police detail they would need to charge $11 per person entering the park just to attend the event. With the beer tent, she said that cost would go up to $17 per person.
Beaulieu, however, said that safety was the most important and they may have to consider charging cars for parking. Both Beaulieu and O’Grady, who attended the meeting, said they thought there would be more people in the attendance as expected. Dufresne said they only had $19,000 in the bank for future Charter Days, which typically cost $26,000, and did not want to plan the event just to have to cancel it due to the cost.