ASHFIELD — Could a regionalized police and fire department be the future for Ashfield and its neighboring towns?

Citing limited resources and increasing financial challenges in maintaining full-time departments, the Ashfield Selectboard wants to begin discussions with neighboring communities about the possibility of regionalizing its emergency services.

“It’s been talked about for a while and I figured, let’s get the ball rolling,” Town Administrator Paul McLatchy III said.

During a Selectboard meeting on Monday, McLatchy presented the board with a draft letter to send to neighboring communities, which described the challenges faced since the Massachusetts POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) Commission was established as part of Chapter 253 of the Acts of 2020.

“Where part-time officers used to be able to be found and easily trained, new officers must now undergo months of intensive and expensive academy instruction, costing towns a significant sum of money and time to fill vacancies with no guarantee of permanence. As new officers are capable of working in any community across the state, it is difficult to retain an employee for one or two shifts a week when they are offered full-time wages with benefits in other communities,” McLatchy wrote in the draft letter. “Most small towns have neither the funding nor the demand for full-time officers.”

For the 2019 fiscal year, Ashfield had a total public safety budget of $229,214, which covered police and fire departments, as well as emergency management, tree warden and animal control expenses. Since then, that budget has doubled; for the 2026 fiscal year, voters approved a budget of $521,830.

“We feel that the only way to ensure the continued services of our Police Department would be to join with one or more towns to share costs and provide enough demand to justify full-time police personnel, allowing us to create positions that are competitive with other communities,” the draft letter states. “In addition, there are opportunities to reduce capital expenses — rather than having multiple vehicles and expensive equipment for each community, a shared department could likely accomplish their work with a fraction of existing inventories and avoid redundant and expensive purchases.”

In addition to managing the operating expenses and capital needs of the departments, Selectboard members said that staffing is also limited. Ashfield’s Police Department currently consists of Chief Beth Bezio, her husband Sgt. Fred Bezio (who also works as the Goshen Police Chief), part-time clerical staff, and a few traffic control staff.

Ashfield’s Fire Department only has one full-time member, Chief Kyle Walker. The rest of the department is comprised of volunteer and paid-per-call members.

Selectboard members said regionalizing could allow the towns to not only split capital expenses, but also offer competitive salaries for full-time officers.

Across the commonwealth, regionalized services are becoming more common. In Hampden County, the Chester-Blandford Police Department has served the two towns since 2019, and in Worcester County, the Hardwick/New Braintree Police Department has been serving the two towns since 2014.

Selectboard members did not approve the draft letter during its Monday meeting. Instead, they requested that it be expanded to include discussions on a regional police department and the potential regionalization of all emergency services. They are expected to vote on sending an updated letter at a future meeting.

Selectboard Chair Tom Carter said regionalizing emergency services would not be a quick process. Still, the benefits are worth looking into, and he hopes the towns can begin the research and discussions.

“It’ll be plenty of hours for everybody,” Carter said. “But we’re really interested in having that discussion.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com