No Closer to Policing Solution
By M. D. Drysdale

The policing of Randolph received a thorough jawing at the Randolph selectboard meeting Monday evening, but Town Manager Peter Butterfield’s proposal of a townwide police district seemed no closer at hand.

The delegation of state and local police included Randolph Chief James Krakowiecki on his first day back at work after a leave of absence for a hip replacement. State Police Lt. William Harkness attended to answer questions about response time to Randolph.

Currently, the Randolph Police Department is supposed to cover only the police district—the village area. Lt. Harkness was candid, however, that the state police often ask Randolph police to check on a situation outside the district—for instance on Interstate 89.

That local check can tell the state police whether they ought to make a call here, he said.

Butterfield has proposed that the police force be expanded by two officers and one vehicle and that it cover the entire town. It would also be funded by taxes from the entire town, instead of just the village area.

Butterfield said that outlying areas of Randolph would get quicker response times under this plan.

Harkness was asked whether it was true that it takes the state police 45 minutes to respond to a call in Randolph. His answer was not encouraging.

"You might not even get us in a day," he said. Response depends on what else the Royalton-based police have on their plates, he noted. There are very few troopers on duty in the barracks’ area at any given time, he said.

Randolph is lucky in that it has one state trooper—John Helfant—who lives in nearby Brookfield and can sometimes respond quickly here, he pointed out.

People who attended the meeting from outside the village, however, said they were more worried about their taxes going up than they were about the current lack of rural police coverage. Taxes on a $200,000 house would go up $242 under the plan, while taxes in the village area would decrease somewhat.

(Police district residents currently pay more than $500 in police taxes for the same house.)

Need Questioned

"I don’t think we need extra protection," said former Selectman Al Floyd, proprietor of the general store in Randolph Center. He didn’t think that a dairy farmer would want to pay extra taxes "so nobody steals his hay bales."

Amy Messier, who with her husband owns two stores in East Randolph, said she is not worried about more coverage, either. "I don’t feel the need," she said. "There’s got to be a different way to do this that won’t cost so much money."

Hebard Hill Road resident Arny Spahn, though, said that he believes that even people outside the district feel an "expectancy" that Randolph police will provide service when it is needed.

Another solution might be to increase the contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to provide more coverage outside of the village.

But Selectboard Chair Jim Hutchinson said the problem with that solution is that the police district residents will end up paying for part of that service, even though they already pay for the entire police force.

Butterfield distributed a new financial statement showing how the addition of two patrolmen and a car would affect the police budget, and how that would affect taxes.

Selectman Damon Lease, however, said he had "little confidence" in the figures. He cited some line items that were projected to decrease, even while the department expanded to the full town.

Lt. Harkness noted that Woodstock has recently gone from a village police force to a townwide police force. Since that time, he noted, the state police have had few calls within Woodstock.