Shutesbury Select Board Unanimously Hires Two Officers, Authorizes Post Office Fight

SHUTESBURY — May 12, 2026 — Shutesbury Select Board hires two bilingual police officers and votes to fight the town's pending post office closure. The board unanimously appointed Gilberto Escobar Ruiz, a six-year law enforcement veteran with Springfield Police Department and Western New England University, as a full-time officer, and Ernst John Lee, a 10-year veteran currently assigned to the Holyoke Police community task force through the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, as a part-time officer — both hires confirmed at the recommendation of Police Chief Pelletier, who called the staffing shortage his department's most pressing challenge. The board also voted unanimously to authorize Town Administrator Haley to draft a letter to the U.S. Postal Service opposing the June 6 closure of the Shutesbury Post Office, with copies to the congressional delegation, after Haley reported that roughly 35 to 40 households in the town's southern reaches have no rural delivery alternative and that the local postmaster himself had no advance knowledge the closure was coming.