HAMPDEN — The Hampden Selectboard signed a contract with Police Chief Scott Trombly, who is retiring from the position on July 17, to serve as the interim chief until the search for his replacement is complete.
The conditions of the month-to-month contract included the inclusion of bereavement time and paid holidays, and keeping the chief’s vehicle throughout his period as interim chief. Trombly agreed to act as interim with a hard end in September.
Town Administrator Brian Domina said the town can handle updating the police chief job description, which is more than 20 years old, and posting advertisements. Narrowing the field of applicants is the work that requires a search firm.
“Let’s say we get 20 applicants,” Domina said. “I don’t have the experience or expertise to tell you the top four that we should send to an assessment center.” Leadership and qualification assessments are generally part of the police chief search process in Massachusetts.
Domina said he had reached out to three search firms and received proposals from two of them. He said Public Safety Consultants had more experience with law enforcement searches, including those in area towns. However, its proposal was wider in scope than the town needed. He said Public Safety Consultants could likely modify its proposal, which would save the town money. Domina described Hanrahan Consulting’s proposal as more “streamlined.” The firm would collect resumes and refer the top candidates to take an assessment.
Alternatively, Selectboard Chair John Flynn said the town could assemble a search panel including retired chiefs from the area and key members of the town’s government, but Trombly advised using a firm as it will have the most up-to-date contacts within the law enforcement field.
The board discussed police chief criteria, including a requirement that they live within a certain distance from the town. Trombly said that, as a non-civil service town, the chief would have to live no more than 15 miles away.
Ultimately, the board instructed Domina to seek a reduced scope from Public Safety Consultants.
The Hampden Advisory Committee joined the Selectboard for an end-of-the-fiscal-year recap. Flynn said he was “generally pretty pleased” with how fiscal year 2025’s expenses kept pace with the budget. He said that the few line-item overruns that occurred were expected.
Advisory Board member Heather Turcotte noted that there were a number of brush fires this year that forced the Fire Department to spend more than anticipated.
Selectboard member Donald Davenport asked the Advisory Board to consider the town’s position regarding updates to the regional agreement with Wilbraham and the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District. He explained that the sticking point between the towns is responsibility for the middle school’s capital expenses.
“Our position has been that we’re not responsible for pre-existing conditions,” Davenport said. A 2015 feasibility study highlighted issues that would need to be fixed to create a regional middle school. Those expenses included a roof, which Wilbraham has replaced, and a parking lot. Hampden voters turned down a 2016 Town Meeting article that would have regionalized the school while creating carve-outs for those two items.
This fall, Davenport said, the district is going to ask for up to $1.5 million for new bleachers at the high school and $700,000 for ventilation at the middle school. “We’re in a position of thinking maybe trying to get a carveout for the $700,000,” Davenport told the Advisory Committee.
Advisory Committee Chair Doug Boyd said the bleachers have been a known issue for several years, and it is not appropriate to bring to a fall Town Meeting, which is generally reserved for matters not anticipated when the budget is passed in the spring. Davenport agreed.
Hampden resident Paul Picknelly came to the Selectboard to propose the installation of holiday lights on street poles around the intersection of Allen Street and East Longmeadow, Wilbraham and Somers roads. The lights would extend down Main Street a short distance and all the way to the former Thornton W. Burgess Middle School, which is the future home of Hampden’s municipal offices.
The lighting displays would be donated by the Spirit of Springfield, which operates Bright Nights at Forest Park. Picknelly described the displays as “generic” and “non-political, non-religious.” However, he did ask for permission to place Christmas trees on town land at the intersection.
Picknelly said the goal is to create the holiday lighting displays without taxpayer funds. Instead, he discussed organizing some fundraisers for the project. Most of the cost would be related to installing brackets on the poles and wiring them using the poles’ power. He said the electricity cost to the town would be “nominal” because the lights are efficient LEDs that use a sensor, so they only run from dusk to dawn. He said Northrup Electrical Contractors has done it in Springfield for more than a decade.
Flynn said, “I don’t see a downside.”
Permission would be required from the pole owners, which are Verizon and National Grid. The displays would need to be stored outside of the holiday season.
