Police District
Shouldn't Expand

Apparently the Randolph selectboard and its police committee does not listen to the Town of Randolph taxpayers. Each time the police district has been voted on to expand, it has been rejected. The Herald even indicated that it was unanimously defeated the last time … so not one person voted for it? That’s interesting!

There are letters to the editor, indicating that village taxpayers are not satisfied with the service they are getting from the police force, so why expand it? How often have we heard about a police officer indicating they couldn’t help because of a multitude of reasons without even trying?

As I have indicated in the past, why would an area vote for expanding the district when the police patrol that area when it best suits them? The article in the Herald also indicated that the committee would need to review the extra costs associated with patrolling the entire town . Ask a few Randolph Center residents how often the Randolph Village police car is seen in the Center, the answer might surprise you!

The answer to the Randolph Police Department problems is not to expand the area and add taxes to individuals who have clearly voted to not have the RPD service their area. The answer is to review what the department costs are, where those costs are being generated, and what to do about it.

The answer is for the selectboard to demand that the police department work in the area that it is being paid to work. It’s about 1 square mile and all the roads can be driven in less then 20 minutes. If they can do that, then maybe they will see they do not need budget increases. If they can do that, then maybe residents that are no longer getting free services will vote to expand the district to their area.

The opinion of seven people, appointed by the Select Board and not the taxpayers, should not outweigh the clear majority of residents who do not want the district expanded, simply because the selectboard wants one of their headaches to go away. The selectboard dropped the ball on the town budgets, indicating it did not know what the residents wanted. It’s time for the selectboard to listen to the majority of the residents.

Michael Hildenbrand

Randolph

Editor's note: The "unanimous" vote referred to above included fewer than 15 voters living in a very small proposed expanded area at the south end of town.