Attempts to quiet misgivings about a municipally organized fire department set the tone of a Whitefield citizens committee meeting with selectmen and firefighters last week.
A tense uncertainty about the fate of the town’s three independently organized volunteer fire associations was evident when Kevin Russo, who assisted Coopers Mills Volunteer Fire Dept. (CMVFD) preparing a grant application last summer, said, “It would do good for the board of selectmen to meet with CMVFD and articulate why this municipal department is a good thing.” Russo said there were still “hard feelings about what happened last June” when Coopers Mills and the town, independent of each other, applied simultaneously for the same Homeland Security fire station construction grant.
“The leadership is going to have to articulate why this is good for the volunteers,” Russo said.
Selectwoman Susan McKeen tersely replied that the committee’s discussions and a report on its findings were intended to address such questions.
So far, several benefits have been identified: among them, operational efficiency, including avoidance of needless duplication; accountability, including protection from liability; and consistency and cohesiveness in planning. Identified challenges include comparative costs (the new structure won’t necessarily be cheaper), and changes to the legal status and authority of the three private companies.
A major concern raised during recent talks is the associations’ willingness to change their charters and legal status to support a municipal department.
Chuck Vaughan, of Coopers Mills, touched on worries harbored by his community’s volunteer fire company. “The guys in Coopers Mills that aren’t Whitefield residents put a lot of effort into fundraising. Will they feel disenfranchised? Will their energy level be dampened? It’s a delicate situation. Rumors are going around, ‘Oh, I’m not giving to Whitefield.'”
The village of Coopers Mills abuts the towns of Windsor and Jefferson. Top CMVFD officials are not Whitefield residents.
According to Vaughan’s report to the committee on building needs, CMVFD has “significant reserves for either a major revamping of the current (fire station) or construction of a new station on land they have already purchased.”
Tim Pellerin, North Whitefield Volunteer Fire Dept. chief, and committee member Carole Cifrino tackled the qualms. Pellerin affirmed that town officers lack the authority to tell the fire companies how to spend their money. Their independently raised funds are theirs to disburse as they see fit, he said.
Pellerin also said that if “turf battles” can’t be resolved, the town at its annual meeting can choose to “hire another municipality to provide or not provide (service).”
Cifrino added, “We can talk of a municipal department that includes two committed municipal companies, North Whitefield and Kings Mills, and Coopers Mills still decides its own fate.” If it didn’t want to join the municipal organization, “it could negotiate an arrangement” with the town, she said.
Pellerin, suggested that it doesn’t matter what a reorganized department is called. “It’s the standards to which it’s held. Base it on Section 1720” of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), “which is credible and stands up in a court of law. This is what we should adopt.”
The standards define, among other things, how volunteer fire departments organize and conduct fire suppression operations and perform other functions.
Committee chair Erik Ekholm said the aim of establishing a municipal fire department by town ordinance operating under the NFPA guidelines would be to “increase efficiency and capability while reducing liability….This change in organization would in no way change the ‘volunteer’ status of responders. Moreover, it is anticipated that three locations for response equipment will need to be maintained in the town.”
Ekholm said he backs such reorganization because having a single command structure with one primary and two satellite stations makes sense, and most professionals in the emergency response field would agree, he believes. “While the history of our three associations must be understood and appreciated, we must also look to the future and the evolution of emergency response in rural communities,” he wrote in his executive summary.
Committee member Frank Ober asked CMVFD Chief Scott Higgins if building a voter approved central station “would change what you build.” Higgins said, “Yes, we had a grand plan for a large modern facility. We’re listening. We haven’t moved forward. I have reservations about signing a big note.”
Committee members charged with writing and editing the final report will meet Wednesday. The report, expected to be finished in several weeks, will be followed by a public hearing. Adopting an ordinance to establish a municipal fire department would be voted on by secret ballot at March town meeting.