Kaplan, Aumand honored

At Monday’s Stowe Select Board meeting, town officials honored Kaplan for his many years of service.

“I’ve personally known Ken for a number of years in a number of different capacities,” said Norm Williams, the new select board chairman. “I appreciate his dedication to justice and to the job he’s done in Stowe.”

Kaplan, not one for sentimentality or serious moments, managed a joke and a sincere thank you.

“You’ll probably be honoring me again in a few months when I retire,” he said. “Seriously, though, … this is a great town to work in, and the community has been fantastic.”

From his days as a patrol officer (1971-88) to captain (1988-93) and finally chief (1993 to present), Kaplan has seen the town grow in a unique way.

In his first year, “you could sit at the intersection of Main Street and Mountain Road at midnight and read a book,” he said. “Nothing would happen.”

But things have changed. With the seasonal cycle of tourism in town, Kaplan and his department are always dealing with new people, for better or worse.

“It keeps you sharp, keeps you streetwise,” he said.

He’s also had his share of crazy calls.

“I got this call once from somebody in a condo,” he recalled. “They said, ‘We have a bat in the house; get it out,’ and you know, I’m telling them all the things they should do to get rid of this bat, but they said they wanted me to come up there.

“So I come up there and ask them what they want me to do. They said, ‘Shoot it.’ I said, ‘OK, if that’s what you want,’ walked out to my car and picked up my shotgun, came back in and ‘boom,’ hole in the wall and a dead bat.”

At Monday’s ceremony, Kaplan called out to the numerous police officers in the audience.

“To my troops — I’m not done yet,” he said.

Paco honored

Francis “Paco” Aumand III, director of the Vermont Division of Criminal Justice Services, was also honored for his night job — the five years he spent on the Stowe Select Board.

Aumand, 58, decided not to run for re-election this year. That led to a spirited competition between Billy Adams and Lisa Hagerty for the vacant seat; Adams won 712-669 on Town Meeting Day.

Other select board members called Aumand a catalyst for change, saying he was instrumental in many major decisions in the past few years. Among them:

• Shifting to a town-manager form of government. Stowe had had a town administrator; a manager has much more responsibility and authority, leaving the select board free to concentrate more on policy than on the everyday work of town government.

• A $7.2 million project to build a new public-safety center for the fire, police and rescue buildings; it opened last May.

• Firm plans for the future of Memorial Park, the recreation area that includes Jackson Arena and the playing fields near Stowe Elementary School.

“Paco is somebody who got me to do this in the first place,” Williams said. “And for that I am eternally ticked at him.”

Kidding aside, Williams said Aumand is “a bureaucrat at heart, who really knows how to handle bureaucracy.”

“I appreciate the acknowledgement,” Aumand said. “Best of luck to you guys. It’s a great board.”