Selectboard Suspend Richmond Police Cooperative Agreement
In its meeting on Aug. 20, the board also voted to halt any new allocations of town water. STORY UPDATED
UPDATED 8.25.25 12:30 p.m.
By The Record Staff
The big news came at the end of its Aug. 20 meeting when the Selectboard voted, with no explanation, suspend its agreement with the town of Richmond for shared police coverage and shared police chief as of Sept. 8.
Before the vote, the Selectboard went into executive session to discuss the issue; Board Chair Merrily Lovell said that discussing the agreement in open session would place the town at a substantial disadvantage in negotiations.
The Record reached out to Lovell to see if the board or she had a statement to make or to add additional information. She declined, referring questions to Town Manager Todd Odit.
Odit said that yes, the two towns are still “trying to figure out if there’s a way for the two towns to work together.” Discussions are ongoing between him and his Richmond counterpart, Josh Arneson, and the joint committee discussing the issue is still meeting.
He said the decision to suspend the current agreement came down to two issues:
In the spring, officers came to Odit with concerns that the agreement was not an equal partnership. As an example, if a Richmond officer went on vacation, then Hinesburg would alter its schedules for officers to make sure the Richmond officer’s duties were covered. But it did not work the other way: if a Hinesburg officer went on vacation, a Richmond officer would not be assigned to fill in.
Additionally, Richmond decided that it would pay its officer time-and-a-half when assigned to cover Hinesburg, but Hinesburg did not do the same when its officers covered Richmond.
The initial agreement back in May 2023 was seen as a model of regional cooperation and cost savings. Difficulties with the agreement began surfacing in late 2024 with the departure of Hinesburg Police Chief Anthony Cambridge to become Richmond chief only to have Richmond to withdraw its job offer. Subsequently the two towns appointed representatives to discuss future directions.
Over the course of the agreement — with Hinesburg shouldering the bulk of the police coverage in Richmond — Hinesburg has received $520,000 from Richmond as of April, figures supplied to The Record by Richmond Town Manager Josh Arneson. The two towns had continued the existing agreement so extrapolating those number puts the sum at over $700,000 paid to Hinesburg.
The other big news from the meeting was the board’s decision to halt new allocations of water, meaning new development is essentially put on hold. (Allocations that have already been approved but not yet utilized will be honored, Odit said.)
Odit said the action was necessary because of several factors:
In 2025, daily average water “production” of water was at 192,000 gallons per day, a quantity close to the water plant’s capacity. This compares to a daily average of approximately 158,000 a day for the previous two years, he said.
The week of Aug. 11, the water department discovered why use recently has been so high: A major leak from the underground valve on the hydrant in front of Hinesburg Community School that was spilling into the storm water system and emptying into the rain garden below and west of the school. It was not visible above ground, Odit explained, which was why it was not spotted. The leak has been fixed.
Another leak on the same line was discovered last week and has been repaired, Odit said, but there are indications that there may be other leaks. Further, Odit said Monday that the daily output of water from the plant had not gone down appreciably after the big repair was repaired.
The town has hired two firms to help 1) find additional leaks and to 2) audit the meters of major users to make sure the billing and actual use coincides.
The board, in its capacity as the Water and Wastewater Board, also agreed to revisit the issue in 3-6 months to assess the impact of the remediation efforts and to decide whether to lift the moratorium on new water allocations.
In other news, the Board:
Selected Emily Alger to fill a vacancy on the Planning Commission; Emily was a director of the Carpenter-Carse Library and works in land use and conservation policy and told the board she is comfortable balancing her background with the need for new housing in Hinesburg.
Voted to donate Hinesburg Fire Department’s old air compressor to the Pomfret Fire Department. Chief Prescott Nadeau explained that the department is getting a new compressor, but he discovered that the Pomfret department could use parts of the old compressor for their own operations. The compressors are used to fill “the self-contained breathing apparatuses” firefighters use for training and when entering a burning building.
Odit said a group of town officials from Chittenden County towns met and agreed to pay the increased fees from Howard Center for the coming year to offset drastic cuts in federal funding.
There will be a bond vote in November on various project needs to expand the town’s water and wastewater systems.
A reminder: There will be a public hearing on Sept. 3 to consider revision to the RR1 zoning boundaries.