Interviews for the position of town fire chief will be held Thursday when the Whitefield transition committee meets at 7 p.m.
Two candidates, current chief Jim Brann and Tim Pellerin, the North Whitefield fire chief, will meet with the board of selectmen and the three citizens who serve on the transition panel. Brann and Pellerin were the sole applicants.
March town meeting voters approved establishing a municipal fire department and a key requirement, before moving forward, is to hire a single town chief.
The building committee, which is fine tuning plans for the new centrally located fire and rescue station also approved at the annual town meeting, is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m.
Board of selectmen chairman Steve McCormick said this week the board decided not only to apply for a USDA rural development loan for the new building, but also to look into funding from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.
“Once we determine the interest rates, we can decide which way to go,” said McCormick. The rural development requirements, especially for bidding on the half-million-dollar project, are “more stringent,” he said. “If at the end of the day the bond bank has similar rates, that would be the avenue we’d go.”
Prior to Monday’s meeting, the board decided it would be best to submit an application to the planning board regarding the new development. McCormick said he did not get a written response to an inquiry to Maine Municipal Association about whether the town had to submit a formal application.
“Politically, it’s the right thing to do. It can’t come back and bite us,” he said.
Of hiring a new chief, McCormick said, “It shouldn’t be a long process. Our goal is to have it done by June 1.”
