By Chuck Potter, The Day
Groton, Conn. –– The chief of the Groton Town Police Department for the past 91/2 years said that, as of Jan. 3, 2005, he will no longer do the job he wanted to do ever since he was a young kid.
“After 34 1/2 years at a career that has brought me many challenges, and also joys, I find it difficult to submit my intention to retire,” Police Chief David Vanasse Sr. said in his letter to the town manager.
Vanasse, who was 21 years old when he joined the force after graduating from Manchester Community College in 1970, has held every position in the department. He said he had been planning his exit strategy for about five years, including grooming other officers to take new positions in the department, bringing in new officers and completing some projects that he wanted done by the time he left.
“The town manager and I talked about it at about this time last year,” Vanasse said from his Mystic home Tuesday evening. “But there was a lot going on. We were getting a new assistant chief (Capt. Kelly Fogg), and I wanted to get a few officers’ promotions and cross-training done. So it wasn’t a good time.”
He told Town Manager Mark Oefinger that he would be ready to step down a year later. He said the department has a “wealth of talent.”
Oefinger, who also has climbed the ranks in the town’s administration, from the planning department to town manager, said he got to know the chief when Oefinger first started working for the town.
“He’ll be difficult to replace,” Oefinger said. “I’m going to miss him a great deal. It was a tough decision for the chief.”
Oefinger told town councilors that the retirement wasn’t totally a surprise, given that the chief had set in motion a succession plan to prepare the police department in the event of his retirement and that of the former assistant chief.
Assistant Police Chief Herthel M. Cooper, who came on at the same time as Vanasse, retired this year.
“All of you have heard through the budget session, he talked about his succession plan and desire to promote from within. I think he left the town in very, very good hands,” Oefinger told the council.
Vanasse said his career was more than he could have imagined. He credited his wife, Donna, with continuing to urge him to take exams and further his career within the department.
“It’s what he always wanted to do ever since I met him. I knew he could do great things,” she said. He loved what he was doing and I have loved it with him.”
Vanasse, who has a propensity for showing up at major crime scenes at any hour of day or night, said the day-to-day interaction with his officers is what he would miss most.
“I’m not a desk person. I like being on the scene, letting the officers do their job, but being close to it. I’ll miss that more than anything else,” he said.
“The officers are like family to him,” said Donna Vanasse, with whom the chief has raised eight children. “When one of them gets hurt, it hurts him twice as bad.”
Vanasse said he has no solid plans for his retirement, but might have some consulting opportunities. First though, he said he plans to spend some time with his wife.
“She’s been my greatest source of strength throughout my career,” he said.