FARMINGTON — Recently promoted police officers Ryan Rosie, Jonathan Parker and Rex Schweighofer were recognized Tuesday at the Select Board meeting.

Also during the meeting, the board approved a bid for two police cruisers and associated equipment.

Police Chief Kenneth Charles said, “Ryan Rosie has been with our department for over 12 years, he has been a stalwart. He takes on any project you ask of him. A lot of his skill set and experience is key to our preparation for active threat scenarios and a lot of the training that we are going to be undergoing.”

The department hasn’t had a corporal in years, he said, and he has been developing the job description for a corporal/training officer.

“Ryan is going to be our primary field training officer for new officers,” Charles said. “We are already coming up with a laundry list of other responsibilities for him, including preparing for active threat response training for all area first responders. I am just thrilled to have him take that next step in his career as well. It is well deserved and he is definitely recognized as a local expert.”

“Farmington is second to none in this very challenging career of law enforcement,” Rosie said. “The training availability, what we have going for the town of Farmington, there is no agency in this state that does a better job of preparing their officers.”

Farmington has a young crew that can do really good things, if prepared, he said.

Charles introduced Sgt. Jonathan Parker, who joined the department a year ago.

He said Parker “has really shown his propensity for leadership, composure, all of the qualities that we want to see in a supervisor.”

“I am very excited and honored to be named the next sergeant,” Parker said. He added that he is looking forward “to serving our department, the community and our town.”

Schweighofer was recently selected as detective, Charles said. “It is going to be great to be able to mentor a new budding investigator.”

Schweighofer, who joined the department a year ago, was training in New Hampshire and unable to attend Tuesday’s recognition.

During their meeting, selectmen approved the $120,736 bid for two 2023 fully-equipped police cruisers from Island Tech Services. The company is based in Ronkonkoma, New York.

If was one of three bids. Island Tech is a relatively new company and brings a lot of good experience, Charles said.

The bid from Hight Ford in Skowhegan/Farmington was $126,725 and from Quirk Ford in Augusta, $122,158.

Chairman Joshua Bell asked what for the department’s reserve account balance.

Town Manager Erica LaCroix said there was $27,649 left at the end of 2023 and $124,000 added during the budget process for a total of over $151,000.

Selectman Byron Staples asked about the life expectancy of the cruisers in miles per year.

“Anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 per year,” Charles said. “My goal is to get to a seven-year rotation  — about 100,000 to 120,000 miles.”

Selectmen also approved putting the two cruisers being replaced out to bid.

Also approved was the $7,000 purchase of a Getac patrol computer and two mobile printers for the cruisers. Island Tech Services will provide them and the money will come from the department’s Computer Reserve Account.

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