{"id":41962,"date":"2023-01-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41962"},"modified":"2023-01-12T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T11:00:00","slug":"sterling-approves-police-promotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/01\/12\/sterling-approves-police-promotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sterling approves police promotions"},"content":{"rendered":"
Byjan Gottesman The Item<\/i><\/div>\n

STERLING The Sterling Police Department continues to evolve, with more internal promotions helping to make it a desirable place to work, according to one of the newly promoted officers.<\/p>\n

The Select Board OK\u2019d promoting Sgt. Steven Fugere to lieutenant and Officer Timothy Plouffe to sergeant.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Sean Gaudette explained that the lieutenant\u2019s position was approved at a 2002 town meeting, but never funded.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of my personal promotional process, I committed to my officers that I would seek funding for the rank\/position,\u201d Gaudette explained.<\/p>\n

Gaudette was promoted from sergeant upon the retirement of former Chief Gary Chamberland. At approximately the same time, Detective Dave Johnson retired, creating another vacancy.<\/p>\n

Gaudette said that, with the difference between his pay and Chamberland\u2019s at the time of his retirement, no further appropriations were needed to fund the lieutenant\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lieutenant position will be funded under the current budget and requires no extra appropriation to accomplish,\u201d Gaudette told members of the Select Board at their most recent meeting. \u201cThe resulting secondary promotion of a patrol officer to sergeant is also covered under our current budget. Additionally, no staffing increases are required to complete this promotion or the resulting promotion of a patrolman to what would then become a vacant sergeant\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fugere has been a member of the Sterling department for 17 years and worked for four years as a sergeant on the night shift. When Gaudette was promoted during the summer, he brought Fugere onto the day shift to help with administrative work. Fugere will be focusing on training, keeping the department in compliance with new standards and grant work, and will receive training on internal affairs.<\/p>\n

Fugere has also been lead drill instructor at Fitchburg State University\u2019s police program since 2018. In response to a question, Fugere said he has had to step back from his instructor duties since being on the day shift.<\/p>\n

With the successful transition of Fugere to the lieutenant\u2019s position, Gaudette recommended promoting Plouffe to fill his sergeant\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

Gaudette called Plouffe \u201ca Sterling success story.\u201d Plouffe is a lifelong Sterling resident and a 21-year veteran of the police department. He spent three years in dispatch and as a part-time officer before becoming a full-time officer 18 years ago.<\/p>\n

The chief said Plouffe came in second in the recent sergeant\u2019s promotional test, behind Ryan Ferguson, who was recently promoted to another sergeant\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

Looking around the Select Board meeting room, Plouffe noted he attended second grade in the building when it was an elementary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lucky to be in this town as a resident and how all of these officers (around the region) seek this department,\u201d Plouffe said. \u201cIt is a credit to everyone in this room and the community. I am proud to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select Board Chair Maureen Cranson noted she has known both of the men promoted since they were very young and pointed out the number of fellow officers in the room for the appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing the support you guys give each other,\u201d Cranson said.<\/p>\n

In other business, the Select Board approved an auto dealership license for Flagg Rentals RV at 145 Greenwood Road and gave the nod to the Sterling Recreation road race on April 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STERLING The Sterling Police Department continues to evolve, with more internal promotions helping to make it a desirable place to work, according to one of the newly promoted officers. The Select Board OK\u2019d promoting Sgt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}