The Newcastle Selectmen article in last week’s Lincoln County News had several inaccurate or misstatements that need to be addressed.
The position of Fire Chief is not a new position. The Newcastle Fire Company has elected and had a Fire Chief since its founding in March of 1876.
This position has been a paid position for over 25 years with increases periodically. The Newcastle Fire Company has been in the business of providing emergency services for the Town of Newcastle for over 132 years and has well-established policies and protocols to ensure that the town residents receive the best protection that we can provide.
Please read the following as it is part of the Fire Company’s annual report to the Town and may explain away some of the misstatements made in last week’s article:
“The Newcastle Fire Company has come to a cross roads in our efforts to supply the best emergency response and services to the Town of Newcastle.
“The Fire Company Trustees over the past couple of years have been looking at the demands on the average firefighter and Fire Company administration. Because of the demand on fire personal from State and Federal mandates, busier work schedules, personal lives and an increase in calls over the past few years, the average volunteer firefighter can not maintain the hours required for training, response to emergencies, and to perform required duties of maintenance on equipment and stations.
“The Newcastle Fire Company Board of Trustees in 2008 presented a plan to the Newcastle Fire Company to expand the position of fire chief to 40 hours a week.
“This position is now paid as a part time position, but with the changes that fire companies are facing and the demand for public services ever growing, the Newcastle Fire Company feels that this is the most efficient plan to accomplish our goal of creating more time for the individual firefighter for training and preparing for emergency calls and expand on the fire chief’s time in the station for record keeping, equipment maintenance, truck maintenance, and general office work such as inspections, grant writing, purchasing and answering general administration demands.
“The cost of this will mean an overall operating budget increase of $23,000, but we feel that this investment will allow us to maintain our level of emergency response and bring more efficiency to the fire operations and administration of the Newcastle Fire Company for the citizens of Newcastle.”
(Clayton Huntley has served as Newcastle’s fire chief since 1990.)
