At Monday’s Edgartown select board meeting, Edgartown Police Chief Bruce McNamee announced the retirement of longtime Officer Stephanie Immelt.
Immelt has served with the department for 22 years, McNamee said, making her the most senior female officer on the Island. “We’re really sorry to see her go,” he said.
Immelt has served as a school resource officer at the Edgartown School for the majority of her career, McNamee said, and “her influence there will be long felt.”
Replacing Immelt will be Officer Gary Kovack, who has been with the Edgartown Police Department since 2019. Kovack “has some very big shoes to fill,” McNamee said.
Select board member Arthur Smadbeck motioned to approve Immelt’s resignation “with gratitude from the board for all her years of service.”
“She was very pleasant, and very nice,” select board member Margaret Serpa added.
McNamee also requested approval from the select board for the Edgartown Police station to accommodate the Island’s District Attorney’s office, which had previously been located at the courthouse.The select board quickly approved that request in a unanimous vote.
“When I say they had a closet at the courthouse, that’s not hyperbole,” McNamee said. “They truly worked out of a closet, which they’ve since been asked to step out of.”
The space made newly available to the DA will allow for file storage and workspace. “I think that arrangement will really help the Edgartown Police and the Cape and Islands DA office work better together going forward,” McNamee said.
This comes after the election of Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois, who, during his candidacy, had previously shared with The Times his intention to address the space situation at Dukes County Courthouse, which has been subject to some scrutiny in the past.
“The Edgartown Police Department, through their chief, Bruce McNamee, was kind enough to offer us some space so we could set up an office setting,” Galibois shared with The Times in a phone call Tuesday.
When asked why the Vineyard’s ADAs have been allocated such an inconvenient-size space to work in, Galibois — who has been in office for about one week — couldn’t say, but reiterated earlier statements of working to find a permanent solution.
Galibois said that a rarely used and fair-sized conference room at the Edgartown Police Department building will be utilized for the foreseeable future, and that the space can better necessitate the needs of the assistant DAs and staff, particularly when it comes to conducting victim and witness interviews, he said, which are oftentimes sensitive in nature and require a safe and confidential meeting space, under the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act.
“There’ll be plenty of space for us,” he said, noting that his office has a “terrific relationship with the Edgartown court staff.” The DA’s office is “most grateful” for the accommodation, he added.
In other business, the board also approved the 2023 commercial oyster season for Sengekontacket Pond. “These are the oysters that we grow every year,” Edgartown shellfish constable Rob Morrison said, noting that the shellfish department grows around half a million oysters from seed annually in Sengekontacket.
“This is a good opportunity to expand the shellfish market during the winter,” Morrison said, adding that harvesting the oysters helps remove nitrogen from the pond. The commercial season is set to run from Feb. 1 to May 1, with a limit of 10 100-count bags per day, and between the times of 7 am and 4 pm, Monday through Friday.
School resource officers are an absurd waste of taxpayer money. Eliminate the position.
School Resource Officers are the heart of community policing. A very prudent use of taxpayer funds. Good luck in your new assignment Gary!
No comment on Mr. Langhammer’s unfounded comment.
I wanted to give a little history on the “closet” that the DA’s office was operating out of. When I began my career at the clerk’s office in the Edgartown District Court, that location was part of the ladies room on the second floor. It had a sofa and a little space outside of the actual restroom. At some point within the last dozen years or so a wall was constructed and new doors were installed and that area became a completely separate space, with barely enough room for an assistant district attorney and the victim-witness assistant, two desks and computers and a fax/copy machine. Kudos to the Edgartown Police Department for giving them an actual private office just blocks from the Courthouse.
Interesting that someone says Resource Officers are a waste of money. If that were true I wonder why so many districts across the country have made them an integral part of their school plans. Safety at the school campus, a quick response in case if emergency, a trained-professional for social situations which lets teachers and administrators remain on their assigned tasks, another person a student can turn to in case of problems, etc. In todays world of increasing violent incidents, drugs, and portrayals of bad policing (sometimes accurately) it seems good to let youth and young adults have a first-hand experience knowing that nearly all Officers are there for the common-good and to help people.
If this were actually a waste of time/money I doubt towns and their schools would still be involved in locating Officers there.
Thank you, Officers, for all that you do.