The Police Commission opted to interview three candidates for the position.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town will interview three candidates for the police chief position.

 

On Thursday, the Police Advisory Commission opted to interview Sgt. Erik Josephson from Saint Albans, Vt., Detective Chelsea Tovar from Richmond City, Va., and Lanesborough Investigator Timothy Sorrell.

 

"We have on paper three candidates that meet the criteria that we were looking for," said Town Administrator Paul Sieloff.

 

Sorrell is the most senior officer currently on staff. Tovar is an experienced detective with a larger department and has family living in Lanesborough. Josephson is a sergeant with similar level of experience as the other two.

 

"We will definitely look at all three," said Commissioner Marvin Michalak.

 

The commission felt all three could handle the job.

 

However, members were somewhat disappointed that they hadn't received more resumes. Those three were the only three to apply.

 

"I was hoping to have 10,12,15. I was surprised that we only had three," Michalak said.

 

Michalak said the Board of Selectmen's requirements that the selected chief live in Berkshire County could have limited applicants and the salary range of $65,000 to $85,000 could be too low.

 

"I got the impression that there were people who were vaguely interested until they heard the salary," he said.

 

The salary wasn't in the advertisement though, Sieloff said, and it isn't likely that the Selectmen would want to go any higher than the current chief's salary, which is about $85,000.

 

"I think that the board would want this committee to look at the three candidates we have and theoretically rule them out before asking to increase the salary range," Sieloff said.

 

He added that other local officers may have backed off from applying because they knew Sorrell was applying and didn't want to step on his toes.

 

The town administrator will arrange interviews for mid-March.

 

Also during this process, the town reached out to nine nearby communities to consider sharing services. Sieloff said there had been some vocal interest but nothing formal. There are also questions of legality, he said, because of jurisdictional boundaries.

 

"We will see if any of these towns will look at issues and come back to us," Sieloff said.