Sorrell Takes Over As Lanesborough's Acting Police Chief

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Timothy Sorrell was appointed acting police chief on Monday night.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Timothy Sorrell will take over police operations Wednesday.
 
On Monday night, the Board of Selectmen appointed Sorrell the acting chief as of midnight Tuesday night.
 
Current Chief Mark Bashara will use vacation time and stay on payroll until Friday, May 29, and then enter retirement.
 
"Today's Mark [Bashara's] last day," said Town Administrator Paul Sieloff. "He'll still be on the payroll but the day-to-day operations will be in the hands of Tim Sorrell."
 
Sieloff said Bashara was willing to part with the job as soon as the Board of Selectmen were comfortable.
 
On Monday during negotiations, Sorrell and the Selectmen agreed to a temporary salary of $80,000 for Sorrell to take over the job now.
 
The two sides will continue to hammer out a contract that'll be put in place on July 1, when the new fiscal year starts. The new contract is expected to be for three years.
 
"We're close but we're not there yet," Sieloff said. "The expectation is that his official appoint of chief [will be] as of July 1."
 
The Selectmen set the process to hire a new chief to conclude an earlier than an anticipated retirement of Bashara at the end of May to provide time for the new chief to get used to the position.
 
However, Sorrell has been with the department for 28 years and Bashara handed over the keys, per se, early because extensive training wasn't needed. Bashara agreed to use vacation time for the final two weeks.
 
"Tim [Sorrell] used to be a sergeant so he knows the policies and procedures," Sieloff said. 
 
Bashara informed the town he intended to retire last April, providing one-year notice. The town then launched a search for a new chief and three candidates applied. Sorrell was chosen by both the Police Advisory Commission and the Board of Selectmen.
 
Sorrell started with the department as a full-time patrolman in 1987 and was a sergeant for 12 years. In 2013, he became an investigator.
 
The Board of Selectmen and Sorrell has been negotiating the contract for the last month, since the Selectmen opted to offer Sorrell the job in April. Sieloff says the contract may be approved as early as next Monday.

Tags: police chief,   retirement,   

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Lanesborough Administrator Gives Update on Snow Plowing

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— Five staff members plow about 50 miles of town roads during the winter.

On Monday, Town Administrator Gina Dario updated the Select Board on snow plowing.  The county began to see snow around Thanksgiving and had a significant storm last week.

"I just think it's good for transparency for people to understand sort of some of the process of how they approach plowing of roads," she said.

Fifty miles of roadway is covered by five staff members, often starting at 8 p.m. with staggered shifts until the morning.

"They always start on the main roads, including Route 7, Route 8, the Connector Road, Bull Hill Road, Balance Rock (Road,) and Narragansett (Avenue.) There is cascading, kind of— as you imagine, the arms of the town that go out there isn't a set routine. Sometimes it depends on which person is starting on which shift and where they're going to cover first," Dario explained.

"There are some ensuring that the school is appropriately covered and obviously they do Town Hall and they give Town Hall notice to make sure that we're clear to the public so that we can avoid people slipping and falling."

She added that dirt roads are harder to plow earlier in the season before they freeze 'Or sometimes they can't plow at all because that will damage the mud that is on the dirt roads at that point."

During a light snowstorm, plowers will try to get blacktop roads salted first so they can be maintained quickly.

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