Chief Christopher Lewis, shown in 2023, is set to leave the Hallowell Police Department on Aug. 29 to become a patrol officer with the Gardiner Police Department. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

HALLOWELL — Chief Christopher Lewis has decided to leave the Hallowell Police Department on Aug. 29 to become a patrol officer with the Gardiner Police Department.

Lewis’ departure will make Hallowell’s shorthanded Police Department even more reliant on the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office for help patrolling the city, officials said.

Lewis, who submitted his letter of resignation Aug. 6, is the second Hallowell police chief in two years to leave for a lower-ranked position in Gardiner. The previous chief, Scott MacMaster, left in February 2023, and Lewis has held the position since Sept. 5, 2023.

Lewis has been in law enforcement since 1994, when he was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in Florida. Five years later, he moved to Maine and began working for the Topsham Police Department, where he rose through the ranks to become chief in 2012.

Lewis’ annual salary in Hallowell is $83,186, and his new job in Gardiner will pay $37.75 an hour, Hallowell City Manager Gary Lamb said.

The patrol officer role in Gardiner also pays overtime, which Lewis often works in Hallowell without receiving additional pay, because his job is a salaried position. On average, Lewis said, he works 50 to 60 hours per week in Hallowell.

Lamb also said Lewis was put under substantial stress as police chief, having to help patrol the city while also fulfilling the chief’s responsibilities.

“The poor man hasn’t had a chance to do his chief duties,” Lamb said.

Lewis said the main reasons for his move to the Gardiner Police Department were greater pay and the patrol schedule. He also said Hallowell’s contentious budgeting process has left him concerned about the future of the Police Department.

“When I look at opportunities,” Lewis said, “it’s hard to take a chance and pass up on an opportunity when it comes to job stability and pay, and what might be beneficial to myself and my family at this point of the juncture here.”

Lewis’ departure will reduce to three the number of officers in the Hallowell Police Department. The city funds five paid positions, but Officer Michaela Trudeau left in November for a $10-an-hour pay increase with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, and nobody has applied for the open position.

Lamb said the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office will help patrol Hallowell as part of a bigger group of communities it covers. But, he said, if the deputy covering the area is elsewhere on a call, police in Hallowell could have a difficult time performing their duties, especially when the bars and restaurants close Friday and Saturday nights.

“In this situation, rather than a few minutes for a Hallowell officer to respond, it could be an hour or more, if they’re tied up on a domestic (call) on the other side of Monmouth,” Lamb said. “This situation, with people saying, ‘We don’t need a Police Department, let’s just go with the county,’ I do not feel it will work here because of the vibrant downtown, after-hours atmosphere that we have.”

Lamb said he expects to appoint Sgt. Christopher Giles as interim chief in the next week. Giles also served as interim chief after MacMaster left last year.