Montville police referendum petition gathers steam
Montville — By Monday morning, petitioners are expected to submit enough signatures to trigger a townwide referendum on the plan to create an independent police department.
A group of town officials and residents submitted 242 signatures to Town Clerk Lisa Terry last week, and planned to submit about 200 more Monday, according to Kathleen Pollard, the town councilor spearheading the effort.
“It’s been crazy,” Pollard said Sunday. “People are very interested.”
If referendum proponents can gather at least 424 signatures, the petition will require a Town Council meeting at which councilors can either reverse their January decision in favor of an independent department or schedule a townwide vote on the issue.
It’s the same process that played out in Montville in 2002, when a motion to establish an independent department with a town-employed chief passed the Town Council, but was overturned in a referendum later that year.
The ordinance the Town Council passed in January would move the department out of the state police resident trooper program and create an independent department, to go into effect following the swearing-in of a police chief.
Howard R. “Russ” Beetham Jr., the former Montville mayor who led the effort for the public referendum that eventually overturned it, has helped collect signatures over the last two weeks at the town’s transfer station.
He said Sunday he opposes an independent police department for many of the same reasons he fought against the idea in 2002.
Even when he first became involved in the debate in the 1970s, he said the argument for keeping the support of the State Police was stronger than the plan to create a new department.
“That stands today,” he said. “Two heads are better than one.”
Plus, he said, the failure of several of the town’s major companies, including the Feb. 1 closing of the WestRock corrugated paper mill, mean the town can’t afford spending money on a new department.
When people told him they believe it’s time for Montville to have its own department, Beetham said he has a response ready.
“My comeback is, 'it’s the wrong time,'” he said. “Look at what we have lost as far as the tax base in the town of Montville … all you gotta do is take a look around.”
Ed Bragdon, a Montville emergency dispatcher, said he has collected more than 50 signatures on the petition at his brother’s Route 163 car towing and storage shop.
“People don’t want their taxes to go up,” he said. “I’m not against an independent police department … but they’ve got to get the tax base up in town do be able to pay for it.”
The petitioners have until Feb. 12 to submit signatures.
A group of about six people has been collecting names for the past several weeks, and some planned to collect even more at Super Bowl parties on Sunday, Pollard said.
People signing the petitions believe the choice should not be left to the Town Council’s five members, she said.
“They think they need to be a part of this decision,” she said.
Twitter: @martha_shan
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