Antrim’s 2020 budget includes funds that would promote a current part-time officer to full-time. The police department budget is $51,000 higher this year than in 2019, which accommodates the salary for a sixth full-time officer.
Discussion about the need for the position came up in the town’s budget hearing on Feb. 12. Ultimately, no changes were proposed to the town’s warrant and proposed budget at the hearing, and although Selectman Mike Genest was not for hiring another full-time officer, all three members of the Select Board agreed to pass the budget, Town Administrator Donna Hanson said. The budget is $4,192,739, up 1.3 percent from last year’s $4,140,016.
Antrim Police Chief Scott Lester said that the item for a new full-time officer was approved back in 2018, but had not been fully funded until this year.
“There were questions about the need and those questions were answered,” he said of the budget hearing, and that the community voiced their support for the Police Department. The last couple of officers to leave Antrim have cited working alone and having on-call hours as factoring into their decision, he said.
“This position is an effort for higher visibility,” he said. A sixth full-timer would help to spread the caseload out, offer more opportunities for overlapping shifts and eliminate most of the need for officers to be on-call, he said.
Currently, the department has five full-time officers and three part-timers, and if the budget is approved at town meeting, they will promote recently hired part-time officer Leland James Hunter to full-time. Hunter worked for several years with the Hillsborough Sheriffs’ office, Lester said, and most recently for the Weare Police Department. He is currently doing his field training in town, Lester said.