MANCHESTER — Room 5 at Manchester Town Hall was overflowing with people Monday.
The 35-plus people, however, were not there to comment on the selectmen's series of committee appointments or meeting minute approvals. They were there to celebrate the careers of a number of Manchester police officers and firefighters — including one policeman who has been on the force for 31 years.
"The sun is setting on a wonderful career but rising on another," police Chief Glenn McKiel said at the meeting.
While Tom Egan was promoted to police sergeant and Jim Doucette to fire lieutenant, Officer Joseph Aiello, 61, was honored for his 31 years of service before he retires Aug. 4.
Aiello, best known in Manchester as "Officer Joe," is retiring because he suffered two subdural hematomas. For the sake of his health, his doctor told him that he could only continue at the Police Department if he got a desk job. Unfortunately, said Aiello, Manchester is not large enough to have police desk jobs; those jobs are filled by civilians.
Selectmen presented Aiello with what Town Administrator Wayne Melville called Manchester's version of the gold watch often given to retiring employees in the private sector. Aiello was presented with a wooden chair, hand-engraved with his name and the town seal. McKeil also presented Aiello with a retired policeman's badge.
"It's just an honor to honor him for all that he has done," said Selectmen Chairwoman Sue Thorne.
Aiello began his career after he moved to Manchester from his hometown of Gloucester in 1976. Before he was a policeman, he worked for 10 years at a printing shop in Rockport. While he was looking for a job in Manchester, his neighbor Alan Gilson, who was a Manchester policeman, asked Aiello if he wanted to work for the department. Aiello took up his offer.
Over his 31 years of service, Aiello said he helped increase police wages as the police union president in the 1990s. Also during the 1990s, he was made the court officer.
But, he is also one of just two Manchester police officers ever to fire a gun at a human being.
Ten years ago, a man named Chad Austin robbed Granite Bank in Portsmouth, N.H., and was chased by police to Salem, where he took a man and his two sons hostage. The hostages were rescued and Austin is still serving his sentence of 19 to 20 years.
During the chase, Austin passed through Cape Ann and almost ran Aiello over.
Receiving a report from Essex police that they were pursuing Austin and that he was going to pass into Manchester, Manchester police set up a roadblock with their cruisers across School Street. When Austin arrived, Aiello said, the robber went off the road to get around the roadblock; when he came back onto the pavement he was on a collision course with Aiello who had been standing behind the barricade.
Aiello shot at the car twice before it veered away.
The incident Aiello remembers most, however, was a hostage situation at the Manchester Masonic Lodge on Christmas Day in1978.
Aiello describes how a former Army marksman had barricaded himself inside the lodge with duct tape and taken one of the members hostage. Aiello was the first officer to respond, and when he went to the door, the man put the barrel of a rifle right to his head. Aiello slowly backed off and waited for the SWAT team.
"(It) could have been a short career," Aiello said.
However, Aiello is perhaps best known in Manchester for his roles as the junior varsity and varsity girls basketball coach at Manchester High School during the 1990s and as the DARE officer — a post he said was his favorite job.
DARE Day became a popular break for students at Memorial Elementary School.
Being such a positive influence in kids' lives — not only as the DARE officer but also as juvenile corrections officer — was the greatest thing about the police work that he had done, he said.
Plus, Aiello said he receives stories from parents throughout the year about how he helped their children become successful,
"The feedback from the people is unbelievable," he said.
Because of his health, he said he plans to take life a little more easily in the future. He has some extra lawn work that needs to be done but, more than that, he and his wife, Helen, have extended travel plans for the coming years.
This December, they plan to attend the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, Calif., and visit some of America's national parks. A year from now, when they mark their 40th wedding anniversary, they anticipate traveling to Switzerland.
In the meantime, however, though Aiello said he would miss being on the force, he has discovered that he can devote more of his time to his family.
"I enjoyed my career as a Manchester police officer," Aiello yesterday. "I'll never forget it."
Michael Farrell can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com
