Along the way, former Mayor Heather McKeever implemented a committee-approach program, where committees reviewed its respective programs. The police committee assisted in its newest formation.

With Dennis Feldmann as the OIC, the interim, Larry Green, will become the deputy OIC. The department also added Clif Wheeler as confidential clerk.

The pay decrease in the change of OIC saved money for the department, even after including the additions of those positions.

The structure is as follows: Feldmann, OIC; Larry Green, deputy OIC; two captains; and 14 part-time officers.

Andrew Sulski

During the village’s recent budget presentation led by McKeever, the board hired Andrew Sulski and Michael G. Kauzala as officers.

“(They’re) very highly trained police officers from municipalities that meet the standards for our procedures,” Feldmann said. “They both come from accredited police agencies, one from the town of Hamburg, one from the town of Evans.”

Feldmann added during the presentation that other things will change as well for Gowanda Police. It will aim for standardizing procedures, focus on an evenly spread workforce and clarity to its policies. He stated that he is not “recreating the wheel” and understanding what other departments have done.

One aspect he emphasized was that a few officers were taking a bulk of the hours.

Also, a few were not working for some time, though he did not have specifics as to how long.

Feldmann stressed that full-time officers often have the opportunity to leave, which makes Gowanda Police a feeder system. In the end, Feldmann believes that this system — assisted by the setup of the police committee — is hitting the ground running.

“I can’t do this job by myself,” Feldmann said. “You bring Larry Green in, who’s the deputy OIC, and he has 30 years’ experience. So to be able to go from operating procedures that were done in Gowanda to standardized operating procedures that are done by everybody — and some of them were standardized, the people prior to me did it in different ways … — (it’s) making it smarter, not harder.”