BETHEL – Four days after upholding Town Manager Scott Cole’s Feb. 12 firing of Police Chief Darren Tripp, selectmen are expected to discuss police matters.

Discussion items at the meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 15, in the town office, include methods for contacting the police department and future police staffing.

On Thursday, selectmen – acting as a jury in appellate capacity – at the second session of Tripp’s termination appeal, upheld his firing by a 3-2 vote.

Cole dismissed the chief for:

• Failing to maintain contact with the Oxford County radio dispatch center in Paris in the event of an emergency.

• Failing to respond from inside the police station for 12 minutes on Dec. 2 to repeated attempts by dispatchers using four separate communication methods to alert him about an armed robbery that had just occurred at the Big Apple store on Railroad Street in town.

That leaves the department with one full-time officer in Charles Beale, who is not yet certified with the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

After Thursday’s 3-2 vote, reserve officers Nate Wight and Patrick Moore turned in their badges to selectmen.

Cole said more reserve officers followed suit en masse on Friday.

“This means they were all serving a person, not the Bethel community, and we don’t want officers like that. We want officers who will serve the community,” he added.

Other agenda items Monday include:

• A review of bids received for the Bethel Ambulance barn expansion project.

• Review budget and related planning decisions in sewer work in vicinity of the new bridge.

• Renew auto graveyard/junkyard permits for four applicants.

• Communications from David Luxton about bid practices and cost overruns, and from Walter Hatch about the rotary clock project.

[email protected]