A Tupper Lake police officer stands watch on Park Street amid a snowstorm in March 2017. (Enterprise photo — Ben Gocker)

TUPPER LAKE — Village police will not be able to respond to emergency calls in the town after Dec. 31 as the contract between the village and town boards for police services will expire after negotiations over the price of the contract have broken down.

At a village board meeting Wednesday, village Mayor Paul Maroun said come the new year, the contract is done and the two boards will need to negotiate a new one.

Without a contract, village police cannot legally respond to emergencies outside village lines. The police operated outside the village for years before he was mayor, Maroun said, but it was done illegally because there was no contract.

“The town will be without police protection because the village of Tupper Lake let it be so,” interim town Supervisor Mary Fontana said. “They asked us to negotiate a contract. I came in good faith and I negotiated a contract. They did not come to negotiate. They came with a demand. ‘Give us $50,000 or we terminate.'”

“I have no choice because I have to protect the taxpayers of the village,” Maroun said. “I don’t want to get into a bitter battle with the town.”

The town has previously paid $29,000 toward the police contract. For years, the village has requested more and the town has approved small increases. This year, the town counter-offered with a compromise on a $50,000 contract: a payment of $35,000 with a $15,000 contingency. If the police department is able to hire more officers — even just one, Fontana said — or expand its shift hours, the other $15,000 would be released.

She was told the village police don’t see hires happening anytime soon, as there are few applicants for police jobs. It doesn’t need to be 24/7 coverage, she said. She would be happy with a couple more hours a day.

The village gave the town the ultimatum on Oct. 31 — the full $50,000 or the contract ends.

“I do not feel holding someone hostage is the right way to conduct business,” Fontana said.

She felt that’s not the way political business should be handled and doesn’t feel town taxpayers want to pay more to maintain the police contract as the department operates for 12 hours a day, half the time than in the past.

Maroun said the village offered a one-month extension for the contract to get it through the end of January at $4,166, one-twelfth of the $50,000 contract, but it was not accepted.

Starting Jan. 1, the only reason the police can work outside village lines is if they are in pursuit of a suspect for a crime which happened in the village, Maroun said, or if State Police call them for mutual aid.

Trustee Jason McClain said the police department budget is $1,136,912 this year. In 2021, he said 5.42% of TLPD calls were into the town outside the village. These were mostly lifesaving emergency calls, he said.

Multiplying the budget by the percent of calls to the town outside the village, McClain calculated that the town uses $61,620.63 of the total police budget.

But Fontana said using last year’s 5.42% figure is not representative of the services the department will provide in the coming year. In April, the TLPD cut its nighttime patrol shift due to a lack of active officers, only operating from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the foreseeable future. This means police are on duty only 12 hours each day.

She said getting half the services with a 74% pay increase did not seem right to her.

Fontana said the contract lived and died with the village, and not due to a lack of effort on her part. She felt her conditions were reasonable for a one-year contract.

“The village board is leaving the town unprotected,” she said. “I am really disheartened, disappointed and sorry to the town residents.”

She said she is sympathetic to village’s request, and acknowledged, “It’s not a lot of money.” But she said other local communities have contracts for police services without any monetary exchange. This contract was initially only for liability reasons, to make the town responsible for liability when officers are in town, and the money was a “thank you,” she said.

“We have somehow, over the years, drifted away from that and moved on to (payment for) services rendered,” Fontana said.

“I think that $50,000 was more than fair,” Maroun said. “The people I feel sorry for are people outside the village because I think this could possibly save lives.”

He has a home in the town himself, and said police officers have life-saving skills.

“This is not about a road patrol. This is not about getting DWIs or speeders. We do a very limited patrol in the town,” Maroun said. “We were talking $50,000. I don’t think that’s too much for the town which has a huge tax base to spend to save the life of someone in the town.”

The Tupper Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad does a great job, Maroun said, but they’ve got to page out, get a driver and drive over, which could take 10 to 15 minutes. That time could be someone’s life, he said.

Police arrive on scene with CPR knowledge, defibrillators and NARCAN, he said.

“If someone has a heart attack, they’ll have to wait. The rescue squad will get there, but … if there was a cop on patrol he’d be there in minutes,” Maroun said.

Town Supervisor-elect Rick Dattola said he was “disappointed” the contract is falling through. He said the town board worked hard on it, but conversations are not done. Dattola’s term begins in January, and he said when he is sworn in, one of his first actions will be to call Maroun. He’s optimistic they can work something out.

“I think we’ve gotta try to get back together and talk about it,” Dattola said. “As long as we keep talking, that’s always the important thing. There’s always common ground somewhere.”

Fontana said between the two boards, there are 10 minds and they should be able to figure something out.