From left, Tupper Lake village police Chief Eric Proulx, Trustee Clint Hollingsworth, Mayor Paul Maroun, newly hired police officers Gage Madore and Kristopher Clark, and Trustees Leon Leblanc and Ron LaScala sign Madore and Clark onto the force in January 2020. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — A four-officer gap in the Tupper Lake village police department was cut in half Wednesday, as the village board hired two new police officers, Gage Madore and Kristopher Clark.

The department has been short-staffed in recent months because in the past year two officers have resigned and two of the eight officers left are being contracted by the Tupper Lake Central School District as school resource officers, law enforcement officers who work from within the district’s two main buildings.

Village police Chief Eric Proulx said he requested the preferred list for people who took the Franklin County civil service exam in Tupper Lake and got three candidates. One declined and he hired the other two after they passed their physicals.

“We lucked out with these two, we got two great local kids,” Proulx said.

Clark is a third-generation Tupper Lake police officer and Madore had interned with the department two years ago.

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Replacements

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Village board members said they had to hurry to approve Clark and Madore because the academy at SUNY Canton starts Jan. 13. They got word that the two were ready to be hired at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Trustee Leon Leblanc abstained from the vote because Clark is his grandson.

Proulx said Madore and Clark essentially make up for the loss of officers Keegan Muldowney and Connor Hesseltine, both hired in spring 2018.

Keegan Muldowney resigned from the TLPD in May after the completion of an investigation into “accusations of extracurricular activities in a commercial establishment.”

Hesseltine’s last day was Nov. 14. He moved to the Malone village police department to be closer to his family.

The village pays to send new officers to training school, with the stipulation that the officers have to stay with the department for five years or else pay back the cost of their schooling. Malone reimbursed that cost when it took Hesseltine, which Proulx said will “more than cover” the training for Clark and Madore.

The two will live in an apartment in Canton for $850 a month for four months, with $100 a week for food. Proulx said otherwise, if the two commuted mileage would have cost around $13,000 for both of them.

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Tuition lowered

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Tuition at SUNY Canton was recently lowered to $1,200 per officer, he said.

Sgt. Geoffrey Carmichael and retired chief Tom Fee are being utilized by the Tupper Lake Central School District as school resource officers, and Proulx said he is lucky to have them.

“I had to put Geoffrey back on the street because of my shortage, he’s missed (being) up there,” Proulx said.

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More hiring?

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Maroun said one of the two deputies the Franklin County legislature eliminated from the sheriff’s department budget in November wants to join the Tupper Lake department. The only problem is he is 55 days away from completing the one-year probationary period he is required to work at the department for before moving.

Maroun said sheriff Mulverhill can either waive his probation or let him serve those 55 days before he leaves the department. Maroun said the officer is already trained and can join the department anytime.

Trustee Ron LaScala said at the village board’s Dec. 18 meeting that the lack of police officer candidates stems from fewer people taking the civil service exam. While that number used to be in the hundreds, he said only 50 people took the Franklin County test this year.

“Just this past test, we’ve narrowed it down to two people,” LaScala said. “Wow. That’s all we can hire. We’re short four.”

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Industry-wide issue

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Proulx said it is an industry-wide problem.

“Nobody wants to be a cop anymore,” Proulx said.

He said he may need to get the full list of everyone who passed the civil service test around the county and hire someone from outside Tupper Lake. Proulx said he likes hiring from within the town because he wants people to know the community and to stick around.

Proulx said even after Clark and Madore are hired, it will be almost August before they can patrol in squad cars by themselves.