WEATHERSFIELD — The Selectboard is scheduled to swear in a new police chief at a special meeting on Tuesday.
Craig Watrous, who serves as a corporal for the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department, will take up the role effective immediately, Weathersfield Town Manager Brandon Gulnick said Monday.
The decision to hire Watrous comes after the Weathersfield Selectboard unanimously voted to terminate its contract with the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department in February after Sheriff Ryan Palmer was arrested on sexual misconduct charges.
The contract was supposed to last five years, with terms of 100 hours of patrols per week at $75 an hour and the possibility of 20 additional hours for emergency services, the Valley News reported earlier this year.
In the months since his arrest, Palmer has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including two felony counts of obstruction of justice, two felony counts of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon, two felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, misdemeanor charges of voyeurism and five counts of soliciting prostitution.
The town settled on Watrous, who is familiar with Weathersfield from his time policing the town while working for the Sheriff’s Department, after conducting a “full background investigation,” Gulnick said.
Watrous, a 37-year-old Plainfield resident, estimated he’s conducted 70% of arrests in town since the Sheriff’s Department began policing Weathersfield last summer.
His salary as police chief will be $87,500, Gulnick said.
In addition to hiring Watrous, the town also has begun the search for one full-time and two or three part-time police officers in an effort to rebuild Weathersfield’s police force.
The town operated its own police force until its police chief resigned last year, Gulnick said.
Tuesday’s special meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Town Office at 5259 Route 5 in Ascutney.
The following week, the Weathersfield Development Review Board will consider an application to change the use of a building at 20 Ascutney Park Road to a police station.
The review board’s meeting is slated for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12 at the same location.
