City awarded grant to fund police hire

The U.S. Department of Justice has awarded Vergennes a $125,000 Community Oriented Policing Services grant, known as COPS, City Manager Ron Redmond told the city council at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Three years and three months after the topic first came up at a Vergennes City Council meeting, on Sept. 26 a new version of the council created a committee to work with the city’s manager and police chief to improve relations between the Vergennes Police … (read more)

In moves that Mark Koenig called “a few years in the making,” the Vergennes City Council has taken concrete steps to create a citizen panel to work with the city’s police department. 

Vergennes police and the city of Vergennes have agreed on a new three-year contract that increases officers’ pay by 10% during the current fiscal year, 9% next year, and 8% in the final year of the deal. 

The promotion of Interim Vergennes Police Chief Jason Ouellette to the permanent head of the city police department became official on Tuesday.

With an overall collaborative tone, city councilors and citizens last week discussed whether a civilian committee should field complaints — if they occur — about the city police force.

The Vergennes City Council has reviewed City Manager Ron Redmond’s first draft of how a community panel to work with city officials on Vergennes Police Department operations could operate.

Jason Ouellette, who has a  track record that includes being named the 2022 Vermont American Legion Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, will take over when Police Chief George Merkel’s retirement becomes official on Oct. 31. 

Vergennes Councilors thanked retiring Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel for his 13 years of “dedicated service” to the city.

The Vergennes City Council has agreed to schedule a community-wide meeting to allow the city’s Citizen Review Board Exploratory Committee to present its study. 

Around 90 people heard former Vermont State Police Col. Jim Baker outline the findings of a lengthy study of the city’s police force on Sept. 22.

After almost a year since the International Association of Chiefs of Police began working on it, the $30,000 “Vergennes Police Department Staffing and Workload Report” commissioned by the Vergennes City Council is complete.

Most — but not all — of the more than 100 local residents who attended Tuesday’s Vergennes City Council meeting came to support Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel and ask city officials to work things out with Merkel and ask him not to retire. 

The Vergennes City Council late last summer agreed to spend $30,000 to hire the International Association of Chiefs of Police, or IACP, to conduct a study of the Vergennes Police Department’s staffing levels, work and policy planning, efficiency, training … (read more)

After a six-month study of the force, the International Association of Chiefs of Police praise the professionalism and training of the Vergennes Police Department, City Manager Ron Redmond told the city council on Tuesday. But the organization also recomm … (read more)