By Christina Whittington, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — Residents will see three new faces patrolling the borough.
At the Oct. 1 Borough Council meeting, the council approved hiring three new full-time police officers by a vote of 5-1 with Councilman Robert Thibault abstaining.
At Monday’s meeting, Mayor Steven Kirson swore in the three new hires, Kenneth A. Larsen, Ronald J. Stephensen and Phillip J. Esposito, in a room filled with Hightstown police officers, officers of the Jamesburg and Helmetta police departments, family members and friends.
The salary for the new hires will be $45,000 a year per officer. One of the officers will be replacing Patrolman David Chenoweth who is retiring at the end of the year. Officer Chenoweth’s yearly salary is $98,000.
At the Oct. 1 meeting, Police Director James Le Tellier said while overtime has been high, the hiring of the new officers should be able to reduce 90 percent of the overtime within the department.
”We are really happy tonight to bring the three new officers on. We have been working shorthanded for a while,” Mayor Steven Kirson said.
Officer Larsen is a graduate of the Camden County Police Academy and Western Kentucky University where he received a bachelor’s of science degree. He has been employed as a full-time police officer at Stockton College for five years.
Officer Stephensen is a graduate of the Ocean County Police Academy. He served as a special officer for Seaside Heights before pursuing his law enforcement career in Galloway Township where he has been employed as a special officer for two years. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in homeland security from Thomas Edison State College.
Officer Esposito is a graduate of the Monmouth County Police Academy. He has been employed as a special officer for a year and a half at the Helmetta Police Department. He also has worked for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for the past six years.
Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Esposito both worked as Class II special officers. According to Mr. Le Tellier, they had the same power as a regular officer, but were restricted to the jurisdiction of the municipality they worked for with a few exceptions.
”However, that is not the case with these officers (as members of the Hightstown department) since they were appointed as regular police officers with waivers,” Mr. Le Tellier said.
He explained these waivers will allow the two to attend the extra classes they need to be regular officers.
”Depending on the academy they attended as a Class II officer, it could be as few as two to eight courses of instruction they would need for full certification as a regular officer,” Mr. Le Tellier said.
There were 47 applicants applying for the three positions.
”I would like to thank Officer Frank Jimenez and Janine Krupa for the excellent background checks that they did,” Mr. Le Tellier said. “They spent a lot of hours on a lot of applicants, and I believe that these three applicants will be a pride and honor to this department and this community.”
Mr. Le Tellier said that with the addition of the three new officers, foot patrols in the downtown area would increase.
”I just wanted to congratulate our new officers,” Councilwoman Susan Bluth said. “I am really pleased that we have three new officers. It has been a long time coming.”
Councilwoman Gail Doran added, “I am very happy to see three new police officers being hired. I think that’s good for the town.”
Council President Lawrence Quattrone congratulated the officers and also thanked Mr. Le Tellier.
”We went leaps and bounds in a short time,” he said. “It’s nice to see that we can do something like that.”
”Adding a more efficient Police Department will add greatly to the operations of this borough,” the mayor said. “There is really some positive things going on, and I am very happy to say that.
The next Borough Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5.

