The town of Rindge has received an extension from the US Department of Justice to accept a grant that would partially fund an eighth full-time officer’s salary.
Select Board chair Robert Hamilton said Tuesday afternoon that the town had received an email from grant program specialist Girale Wilson-Takahashi, approving the request to extend the grant’s acceptance beyond Town Meeting on March 14, allowing the decision to be placed on the town warrant.
“The request has been approved, so I feel a lot better,” said Hamilton, regarding the extension. “Now the grant’s acceptance will go to a Town Meeting vote.”
The Rindge Police Department was one of four New Hampshire agencies to be awarded a $125,000 U.S. Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program grant this year, which would require the town to hire an eighth full-time officer for at least four years. The grant subsidizes a portion of the officers pay, with the fourth year being paid entirely by the town.
The Select Board voted unanimously on Nov. 9 to bring the approval of the grant to Town Meeting vote in March, a process that depended on the Department of Justice allowing an extension on the grant’s acceptance. Originally, the grant needed to be accepted by the end of the year.
Townspeople have been divided about the Select Board’s handling of the grant, with a number of citizens wanting the board to accept the grant during a public hearing on Oct. 19.
Selectmen Hamilton and Jim Qualey have said they didn’t feel “comfortable” accepting the grant because of RSA 31:95-B which states the acceptance of unanticipated revenue shall “not require the expenditure of other town or village district funds except those funds lawfully appropriated for the same purpose.”
Since the town does not have funds in the current budget allotted for an eighth officer, the two selectmen argued that the town could not legally accept the grant under the current budget cycle. The Select Board has said in previous meetings that funds for an eighth officer will be placed in next year’s budget.
Selectwoman Roberta Oeser differed in opinion on the interpretation of the RSA, saying that since the town already had funds for full-time police officers, the grant could have been accepted the night of the public hearing.
Rindge Police Chief Todd Muilenberg has already begun the process of searching for an eighth full-time police officer, and is accepting applications through Dec. 6. Hamilton said that he hope the town can find an eighth officer “sooner than later.”
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.