HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — Trustee William Colletta reflected on the strides the township’s police department has made over the past year at a recent meeting, including starting with four officers at the beginning of 2024 but entering 2025 with seven full-time and two part-time officers.

The township will be looking to build upon that progress, as they officially opened their search for a new police chief Monday.

Colletta said he and the other trustees have yet to reach an agreement about how they’d like to conduct interviews for the position. Trustee Jason Tedrow and new Trustee Monica Baker, who was sworn in at a Feb. 7 special meeting, have different ideas about how they’d like the interviews to go.

“One of the trustees wants to go and get people from not in the community to do the first round of interviews,” Colletta said. “Another trustee just basically wants to get some retired police chiefs to do the first round (of) interviews; so we’re going to have to discuss that and see.”

Colletta said their goal is maintaining their newfound continuity, whether it comes from an internal or external hire.

“The opportunity is there for the acting chief to interview also, but we just wanted to broaden our perspective and see if there’s anybody else out there,” he said. “Maybe a retired chief or one that was thinking of slowing down with a lot of experience that might want to take over.”

Colletta said Sgt. Ron Reed, who was appointed interim chief after the township accepted acting Chief William Greene’s retirement on Nov. 12, has expressed interest in the position.

“He (Reed) also stated though, that if there’s someone out there that applies, who’s more qualified than him, then he would accept that and stay with the department and help to keep it going in the direction we have going,” Colletta said.

He acknowledged they’ve been pleased with Reed’s work on the administrative side, noting he helped the department get back into the Ohio Collaborative, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to continuing professionalism, and innovation as well as improving the relationship of police and communities by working together with the public and other law enforcement associations across the state.

“We were not getting compliance, so we’re back in compliance now,” Colletta said.

Colletta said they plan to wait and see how many applicants they receive, foreseeing things will go as they did with Austintown’s search for a chief. Austintown trustees announced Monday that Lt. Valorie Delmont would succeed Chief Robert Gavalier, after a search involving nine applicants — three of whom were internal — and had five make it to interviews with trustees.

Tedrow, who was appointed as the police department’s new liaison, said it was “critical” that they find the right hire, noting the constant rotation they’ve had at the position over the years and echoing Colletta’s goal of maintaining continuity.

“This will be our fourth police chief in five years so with that kind of instability, it doesn’t really breed a great department in the long term,” Tedrow said. “We want to get somebody that’s going to hopefully be able to be here for quite a few years at least.”

Tedrow recognized the monetary problems they’ve had, too.

We’ve had a couple (of) issues, we almost lost the department because of financial issues about five years ago and then at the beginning of last year, we were down to four officers and we were on the verge of doing that again (losing the department),” Tedrow said. “We need to get somebody that’s going to build a team and I don’t care if it’s somebody I know or somebody I don’t.”

“I just want to make it an independent process to make sure we get the best candidates,” he added.