Whitefield selectmen may have been clueless about a fire department compliance manual containing rules and policies (LCN 3-17-11), but Jim Brann, who was fire chief until last July, said this week he hadn’t forgotten. He has a copy but the selectmen “never had one,” he said.
Brann said the town’s three fire associations some years ago purchased copies of “Whitefield Fire Department Compliance Manual for Fire Department Safety,” by consultant Lynn Orne of Fire Service Compliance Associates. The book is copyrighted 2006.
“We wanted to divide the cost five ways,” Brann said this week. “Each station got one and paid for it themselves. I bought my own.”
The former chief said the selectmen didn’t want to spend what he thought may have been $50 to buy their own book.
On a date Brann couldn’t remember, the board was asked to purchase a copy at a price that would provide regular updates, but the two members present at the board’s regular meeting, Bruce Mathews and Charlene Bartlett, “voted it down,” he said. The fact that Mathews resigned in February 2007 places the action in 2006 or early 2007.
The decision also explains why selectmen this past winter couldn’t find the book in their office when they were looking for fire department policies.
Selectman Steve McCormick, now chair, was absent from the meeting. The board, however, did sign a letter. “It acknowledged that the policies would be adopted and that the fire department would use them,” Brann recalled. “And we did use (the book).”
Brann said he is looking for his copy. “It’s in a box somewhere. I’m going to give it to the town when I find it,” he said.