HOLYOKE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – Holyoke’s search for a new police chief has hit a roadblock after one of the finalists withdrew. Now the application process has been extended by two weeks.

Holyoke Police Chief Dave Pratt has served the city of Holyoke for more than three decades, but in May he announced he would retire on July 31. potential candidates. Garcia told Western Mass News there were nine candidates total and the search committee was able to narrow it down to two finalists. He told us the final interviews were scheduled for this week, but had to be postponed after one candidate dropped out.

“I quickly got back with the advisory team to understand, you know, the direction that people wanted to go and come to consensus and, ultimately, what came out of that conversation was not to restart the process, but to extend it for two more. weeks just to make sure there were other candidates who might have wanted to apply,” Garcia explained.

Garcia stressed that they wanted to ensure that the city of Holyoke did not choose a candidate by default, chosen simply because there were no other options.

“The candidate remaining in this process is fantastic and I look forward to interviewing them at a public meeting in a final public interview to ensure that no stone is left turned,” Garcia added .

Garcia told us that the person who dropped out was actually an internal candidate, while the other remaining finalist is an external candidate, which he finds interesting, given the debate going on in the city.

“We talk about it a lot in the community. The discourse there goes as far as what people want. There are people who say: “We don’t want an external candidate”. There are people who say, “Hey, we need an external candidate.” We should not single out anyone for whatever reason or argument the groups have,” Garcia said.

Garcia assured us that this extension would not be a huge setback for the city since the interim chief is doing a great job and is willing to stay in office as long as necessary. The last day to apply for the senior police officer position is now November 11.

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