Politics & Government

Selectmen Get Tense Discussing Firefighter Hires

Voters appropriated salaries for four full-time career firefighters during last May's town meeting.

Selectmen discussed the hiring of four full-time career during Wednesday's Board of Selectmen work session.

According to Fire Chief Alan Jack, approximately $80,000 of revenue was generated last year due to paramedics added to the staff. The salaries of the four hires were approved by residents during last May's town meeting, according to Chairman Dave Parker. An entry firefighter salary is approximately $34,000 a year.

Chief Alan Jack said the decision to hire four additional firefighters was a financially sound decision after meeting with Finance Director Bruce Alexander and Town Administrator Pamela Nolan. Two on-call firefighters currently hired by the town would be first choice to hire.

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But words got heated after Selectmen Bob McLintock told Fire Chief Alan Jack he was responsible for onboarding on-call firefighters throughout the last year. September was a deadline to find approximately 20 volunteers. According to Chairman Dave Parker, the fire chief was aggressive in trying to find on-call firefighters, utilizing local media to get the message out.

"I was there, I know you tried everything," Parker said.

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McLintock then handed out literature regarding on-call volunteer recruitment efforts and noted communities like Warren, R.I., and Swansea have had success. Parker rebutted, saying Rehoboth and Swansea were both having a hard time finding volunteers.

McLintock also said the hiring of four more firefighters would be superfluous, especially since the north and south end of town are without manned fire stations.

"I just think that we haven't done our job here. We haven't dealt with this issue," said McLintock.

"How they're going to be used is a manning issue, not a financial issue," Parker said. "This has been explained to us three times."

Selectmen Francis Cavaco then told McLintock that he could have looked at the fire department contracts before the meeting. He also said that while peripheral of the town could use rescue supervision, delaying the hiring of firefighters - who town voters already approved to hire - would not be beneficial to the cause.

"We're working on it...Unfortunately Rome wasn't built in a day," Cavaco said, noting Chief Alan Jack was "doing a hell of a job." 

"I don't think I should have to go into the contracts," McLintock said. " I don't have the history on the board...I'm an observer at the meetings."

Parker said he wouldn't have agreed to hire additional firefighters, but the financial figures swayed his opinion. Nolan also said there was nothing in the contract that would limit manning firefighters to a specific post. 

McLintock then asked the administrator if she ever approached him to explain the contracts. Cavaco then asked him if he approached the town administrator to find the answers to his questions.

Parker and Cavaco voted to revisit the hiring of the two on-call firefighters to full-time status during an upcoming meeting. McLintock abstained from voting.


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