Community Corner

State Troopers to Return to Troop C

In the next few weeks, the barracks will get back the six troopers they lost in the layoffs.

On Monday, it was announced that the 56 Connecticut State Police troopers who were laid off due to budget cuts will be returning to work.

For the Troop C barracks in Tolland, this will mean the return of six troopers. Ryan Cloukey, Timothy Merrill, Alexander Rua, Joseph Strogoff, Kristina Vivino, and Michael Zella will all be back in the next few weeks.

Lt. C. Leon Pierce, commander of Troop C, said that one trooper will be returning on Friday, while the other five will return on Oct. 21.

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The troop covers Mansfield, Ellington, Somers, Tolland, the highways in Vernon, Stafford, Union, Willington, Ashford, and provides assistance in Coventry.

Pierce said that the biggest part of this news is the morale boost it gave.

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“The guys and girls here at the troop are very happy that they’re back,” he said. “Everyone is very happy to see them come back.”

It will also allow more flexibility with scheduling. Pierce said that some requests for days off have had to be denied due to lack of coverage. With these troopers back, there will also be opportunities to have more troopers on the road for patrols and also doing additional initiatives.

Pierce said that these initiatives include having a day where a trooper wants to go search for fugitives, or maybe give a talk at a school.

During the day, the troop has the assistance of the Resident State Troopers in town, but after that, it goes to a bare bones, minimum patrol.

While they’ve been shorthanded since the troopers left – one at the end of August and the rest the first week of September – they’ve still been getting the job done.

“Our job is unique in the way that if there’s an absence, we’ll fill people,” Pierce said. “There will always be enough people to do patrol coverage. So if we lost 10 guys tomorrow, we would still have to provide minimum coverage for each town, each patrol.”

Since state employee unions ratified the second State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition in August, 40 sworn personnel of various ranks have chosen to retire. The 40 sworn personnel who have chosen to retire on either Sept. 1 or Oct. 1 had salaries totaling $2,254,460. The 56 State Troopers who will see their layoff notices rescinded have salaries totaling $1,888,830.

“I don’t really understand how that happened or everything that was involved with that, and I don’t care how they worked it out, I’m just glad to have the guys back,” Pierce said. “However they decided that they want to bring them back, that’s up to them, I’m just happy that they’re back.”


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