A Buxton police department already coping with a couple of high-profile cases is losing two veteran officers.
Jason McClure and Kenneth Brislin have been hired by other towns, McClure by Kennebunk and Brislin by Biddeford. Their departure cuts the full-time strength at the department from eight to six officers, and two of those are training at the state’s police academy.
“They want to go to bigger departments to further their careers,” Buxton Police Chief Jody Thomas said Tuesday. “They were very good officers, and they’ll be missed.”
In Buxton, both officers earned an hourly wage of $18.90, according to Anne Robishaw of the town’s finance department. McClure will earn $19.22 an hour with Kennebunk police. Brislin’s pay in Biddeford will be $21.25 per hour.
McClure had nearly nine years in Buxton, and Brislin eight. The last duty day in Buxton for McClure, 35, is Feb. 23.
“I have accepted an offer of employment with the Kennebunk Police Department, and I feel that this change will aid in my career advancement,” McClure wrote in his resignation letter Feb. 9 to Thomas.
Chief Mark Pardue of Kennebunk police said McClure starts there on Feb. 26. “We’re very enthusiastic that he’s joining us,” Pardue said.
Brislin didn’t respond to a message left at the police department Tuesday, his last day at Buxton.
Brislin sent a similar resignation letter to Thomas on Jan. 31. “I have accepted an offer of employment with the Biddeford Police Department. I came to this difficult decision because I feel this position will be advantageous to my career growth,” he wrote.
A spokeswoman in the office of Biddeford Police Chief Roger Beaupre said Brislin begins work there Friday.
The resignations are the latest in a series of problems that have struck the department in the past year. Two people left the department to join York County Sheriff’s Department, and two police cruisers were destroyed in collisions.
The department is still investigating the mysterious disappearance of Coreen Wiese, 15, last seen on Nov. 8. And the family of a well-known Buxton woman, Ethel Lewis, has publicly questioned the police investigation into her death on Dec. 4.
Lewis, a pedestrian, died after being struck by a van in front of her home on Long Plains Road. Police that day described the accident as a hit-and-run, but later reported it wasn’t because the driver was at the scene.
McClure was the investigating officer. His report identified the driver as Lori L. Marston, 43, of 465 Long Plains Road in Buxton. No charges have been filed.
The accident, whose circumstances remain puzzling to the family of the victim, is being reviewed by York County District Attorney Mark Lawrence. He declined comment on the case Tuesday, but said if an investigating officer leaves, it usually doesn’t impact a case.
“The officer would still be available as a witness,” Lawrence said.
McClure said the fatality investigation had nothing to do with his resignation.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” McClure said Tuesday. “It has nothing to do with the case.”
Selectman Bob Libby said he thought the department’s pay and benefits were comparable to other communities, and police in Buxton have a union contract.
“We’re trying to determine the reasons for the loss of these two officers,” said Libby, one of the town’s five selectmen.
Libby described them as two of the longer tenured officers on the Buxton force. And he said the town needed to hire replacements.
“You hate to lose them. They know the town well,” Libby said.
Thomas said she is currently interviewing replacement candidates.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
