Bennington’s 2026 warrant includes a proposal to hire a third full-time police officer at a cost of $120,000 for salary and benefits.
“We want to know what the town thinks about hiring a third officer,” said Select Board chair Jim Cleary. “This is kind of a debate that has been ongoing for years in town, and we decided to put it out to the voters.”
Cleary said Bennington must rely on coverage from the New Hampshire State Police for eight to ten hours a day.
“This would drastically reduce our reliance on the State Police,” he said. “It cuts that down to about four hours a day.”
In response to questions from the public about the $120,000 cost of hiring an officer, Select Board member Tony Parisi said the salary and benefits package is necessary to attract quality applicants.
“This is the going rate. Nobody wants to come here because we don’t pay enough and we don’t have coverage. This is what we need to pay,” Parisi said. “We have crime in this town, including violent crime, and need a full police force in this town.”
Select Board member Travis McClure noted that $40,000 of the $120,000 is the cost of benefits.
Cleary said the town of Bennington was unable to work out a police regionalization agreement with neighboring Antrim.
“I’ve been working on this issue for 35 years. Regionalization is very complicated, because you give up all local control. We would have to give up our cruisers, our equipment, and then after 5 years, we could end up with nothing if Antrim decided to change the contract,” Cleary said.
Police Chief Tom Horne spoke in favor of hiring a third officer, saying that many towns’ attempts to explore regionalization in the region have stalled.
“We tried to to look at regionalizing when I was in Hancock. We had a committee, and Greenfield had a committee, and the talks broke down because they could not even agree on what questions to put on a survey about regionalization,” Horne said.
Cleary said Bennington has struggled to attract and retain full-time police officers for years.
“You can’t make people stay,” Cleary said. “We are working on a contract where we would be reimbursed for costs like training and uniforms if a person leaves before their contract is up.”
Town moderator and attorney John Cronin III said a contract requiring an officer stay in town for a set period of time “cannot be legally binding.”
Bennington’s warrant also includes reserve and expendable trust funds for most town departments, including police, fire, water and sewer, DPW, the library, and town buildings.
Cleary spoke on behalf of Article 13, the Bridge Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund,
“This one is important. We have three more bridges coming up for repairs, and the town pays 20% of the cost, and it’s not cheap,” Cleary said. “We need to save up for that.”
Bennington’s bridges include multiple spans over the Contoocook River as well as over two canals flowing through Monadnock Paper Mill.
Bennington voters will vote on the 2026 warrant on Tuesday, March 10.