(for Shelly and Margo)
By SHELLY JARVIS and MARGO HOWLAND
Contributing Writers
WINDSOR - In a surprise move to many in Windsor, Police Chief Jim Cushing resigned effective Thursday, on the one-year anniversary of the day that he was hired by the selectboard following a six-month stint as interim chief.
“The chief’s stated primary reasons were frustration over the long hours he felt compelled to cover due to a severe manpower shortage in the department, and inadequate pay,” Interim Town Administrator Mike Farrell said in a statement issued later Thursday morning announcing the departure. School Resource Officer Randy Christensen was put in charge of the day shift. When asked if he was Acting Chief, Christensen declined to characterize it that way, saying only that the department was “regrouping.”
The resignation came to light after an emergency selectboard meeting last Wednesday that was executive session only. It was at this meeting that the resignation was accepted “with regret.” Currently Farrell, the interim town administrator from Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), has stated that a new interim police department manager will be hired to fill in until a new Chief can be found. Cushing, 64, has been put on paid administrative leave and Farrell left open the possibility that he would remain with the department, perhaps with the open sergeant’s position that was not filled when he stepped up to the Chief position.
Cushing wasn’t talking to the press last week, but his wife, Diana, told the Windsor Area Observer that it was untrue that he had resigned on less than a day’s notice, as Farrell claimed. The interim town administrator was quoted in the Valley News as saying Cushing sent him an e-mail on Tuesday, which he couldn’t open, and that after talking with Cushing later in the day, learned that the attachment was a letter of resignation. He then talked again with Cushing twice on Wednesday, the paper said.
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