Montville — At a public hearing on an ordinance to establish an independent police department in November 2001, more than 100 people gathered for a raucous public hearing that included several shouting matches on the issue.

About the same number of people gathered in the Montville High School auditorium Thursday night to discuss almost the exact same ordinance, but this time the audience was more subdued.

The Town Council is set to consider an ordinance that would end the town's participation in the Connecticut state trooper program and establish an independent department with its own chief.

Montville residents made measured arguments Thursday night, echoing many of the same points that have made up the more than two-decade debate over the department.

Those in favor of the ordinance spoke about increases in crime, the need for consistent leadership and the inefficiency that Montville's emergency service dispatchers face when they transfer police calls to the Troop E barracks during an emergency.

Those against, about a dozen people, said now is not the right time to raise taxes to pay for the new department, which an independent committee said in November could add about $300,000 to the town's police budget.

Howard R. “Russ” Beetham Jr., whose 30-minute statement as Montville's mayor prompted much of the shouting at the 2001 meeting, took the three-minute time allotted for speakers Thursday to repeat his opposition to an independent department.

"Now is not the time," he said.

The town still cannot afford spending on the switch, he said, especially following the closure of the AES Thames power plant and the announcement this week that the WestRock corrugated packing plant will close Feb. 1.

"We're on sinking sand," he said. "We're going down, and someone else is trying to spend more money to bury us."

But more than 20 people spoke in favor of the proposal, saying the town's 26-officer department has outgrown the state trooper program.

"Montville is too big for a resident trooper," Oakdale Fire Chief Gary Murphy said. "It wasn't meant to be the way that it is."

Both former Montville resident state Trooper Victor Lenda and police Lt. Leonard Bunnell — who each mentioned they had been hired during Beetham's tenure as mayor — said the department is ready for independence.

"When I first started, there were four traffic lights on Route 32," Bunnell said. Now, he said, "the men and women of the Montville Police Department are extremely busy."

Former law enforcement officers, town officials, members of the town's public safety commission and contributors to the latest ad-hoc committee report took their three minutes at the podium to urge the Town Council to vote for the ordinance or, if the council votes it down, for their fellow residents to reverse such a vote in a referendum.

The proposal for an independent department was overturned in a 2002 townwide referendum.

Town Councilwoman Kathleen Pollard, a Republican and former member of the Independence for Montville party, said this week she would personally file a petition to take the decision to another referendum.

m.shanahan@theday.com

Twitter: @martha_shan