Finance Board Approves Bid Waiver for Police Boat

At a special meeting Tuesday, the Board of Finance unanimously approved the police department's bid-waiver request to purchase a new police boat.

The department was awarded a $375,000 port-security grant last September to buy the vessel, but the town has to front the money before being reimbursed. The department needed the bid waiver in order to buy the boat it wanted, which is the same boat the Groton Town Police Department has.

At its meeting two weeks ago, the board heard testimonials from Groton Town Police Chief Mike Crowley and Groton Town Police Capt. Steven Sinagra, who supervises the department's marine patrol unit and dive team. 

On Tuesday, board member June Strunk lauded the cooperation among the towns in the regional patrol, noting that they have collaborated on applications for grants whose benefits are shared among all the member towns in four areas — sustainability, training, communications and platform (i.e. the boat).

"If it wasn't something that really benefited us and the whole area, we wouldn't have gotten the grant approval," Strunk said.

Board member Sandy Grimes said his questions about long-term maintenance costs had been answered by Stonington Police Capt. Jerry Desmond since the last meeting.

Stonington Police Chief Darren Stewart highlighted the work Desmond put into the process. 

"Jerry has been for years and years teaching boating safety ... this is really the culmination of a lot of hard work on his part," Stewart said. "He really has put a lot of time into this and it's really for the benefit of the town."