Vernon chief, board fill police position
BRATTLEBORO — The Vernon Selectboard approved interim Chief Mary Beth Hebert’s decision to promote Bruce Gauld to sergeant Monday night.
Hebert, who has served as acting chief for roughly four months, said Gauld is very deserving of the promotion. She spoke to the board after they met with representatives from Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to discuss the recent developments at the Vernon facility.
“I think he’s more than qualified for the position,” she said. “He has over 30 years of law enforcement experience. He was a sergeant in Massachusetts for five years.”
Selectboard members Lynda Starorypinski and Robert “Bobby” Miller agreed, noting both Hebert and Gauld have displayed excellent signs of leadership in the department’s turnover last autumn.
“For whatever it’s worth, I think she’s done a fabulous job and I think Bruce has stepped up to the plate and done a tremendous job,” said Starorypinski.
“I think they’ve both stepped up to the plate,” said Miller.
Hebert said the promotion will help relieve some of the incoming pressures to the acting chief.
“I just am going to need that buffer,” she said. “With the new people coming on, they’re going to have a lot of questions and it’s just going to be overwhelming if I don’t have that position filled.”
But since town officials have not permanently set the police department hierarchy, board members were skeptical about promoting any personnel before establishing a full-time chief.
“I would like to meet either with [Hebert] or with the department as a whole and get a sense of where we’re going, how we’re going to get there and what the timeframe is before we start moving people around,” said Selectboard Vice Chairman Michael Courtemanche.
Instead, board members decided to name Gauld as the acting sergeant at the present time and move forward with setting a more permanent structure after Town Meeting Day.
“I think it needs to have a lot of thought given to it,” said Selectboard Chairman Michael Ball. “It wouldn’t be fair to Mary Beth to try to slam it through. It wouldn’t be fair to the department, it wouldn’t be fair to the townspeople either.”
In late October, Hebert was appointed Vernon’s acting chief by the Selectboard following the termination of former chief Kevin Turnley.
Hebert and all Vernon Police Department personnel will hold an open house beginning at 1 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the Town Offices for residents to meet with the officers and see the recently-acquired Tahoe cruiser. Refreshments will be served.
Source: Brattleboro Reformer
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