HADLEY — Police reform legislation in Massachusetts and challenges to the health of several officers is making it difficult to keep the Hadley Police Department fully staffed.

On the evening of Dec. 21, when the Select Board appointed Officer Jacob Marini as an acting sergeant to fill the role held by Staff Sgt. Michael Romano as he enters a leave of absence due to recently being diagnosed with a form of leukemia, Police Chief Michael Mason successfully appealed to hire a new full-time officer.

“We can’t continue to operate under these circumstances,” Mason said.

He explained that two officers have been out with COVID, one officer was concerned about a possible broken foot and another officer just returned from sick leave, while a detective is handling three major investigations.

In addition to Mason, the department currently has two lieutenants, three sergeants, a staff sergeant, 10 full-time officers and two part-time officers.

But the Municipal Police Training Commission and the Peace Officer Standards Training Commission, both created from state police reform legislation, means that some officers may no longer be eligible to work under waivers and exemptions.

“I found out that I may end up actually having to change the title of two of my full-time officers to part-time officers, reduce their hours, thus pulling two more officers out of full-time ranks for a period of time, just so they can complete the new bridge academy and then put them right back into full time when they’ve completed that,” Mason said.

Until he gets a new full-time officer, that will hit overtime, and it’s uncertain whether he will have enough in the department’s remaining budget to cover those costs, noting that use of overtime has plagued the department for a number of years.

Mason said the request at this point, to open the hiring process for a full-time officer as backfill for the officer on medical leave, is sensible.

“This board has been very good to our department. This town has been very good to our department,” Mason said.

Romano, who has been the school resource officer and with Hadley police for nearly 10 years, has been on leave since November. A public Facebook post to the department’s page let the community know about his diagnosis:

“At 38 years old and newly married, Sgt. Romano was recently diagnosed with a form of Leukemia, after not feeling well for several months.”

The Select Board approved the hiring, the appointment of Marini and transfer of the department’s sick bank time to Romano, in a unanimous vote.

“We understand what you’re up against,” said board member Molly Keegan.

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