June 06--TRURO -- The town is taking steps to create a new management structure for the fire and rescue department.
The board of selectmen intends to be fully involved in all aspects of the transition, board chairman Jay Coburn said Thursday.
The selectmen plan to appoint a new advisory committee of local citizens who will help determine the future structure of the department and what type of leadership is needed. The town also will hire a consultant to aid the advisory committee and the selectmen. A basic outline of what the town needs for a fire and rescue department should be ready by November, Coburn said.
The selectmen could appoint members to the new committee as soon as June 25.
"I'm really looking for a broad and diverse group to inform this process but also I think we really want buy-in throughout the community that what we come up is what is needed," Coburn said.
On May 22, the selectmen elected part-time Fire Chief Brian Davis to continue as interim chief.
The town, the smallest on the Cape, has traditionally had a paid, on-call fire department that mans the station during the day. Firefighters respond from home at night.
But the on-call firefighter model has languished in the last few years due to the lack of people willing to commit and the tough economy, fire officials have said in recent years. The department currently has fewer than 20 people but could use twice that. The selectmen have also fielded complaints that not enough firefighters are showing up for fire emergencies in town.
The town also pays an annual fee to the nonprofit Lower Cape Ambulance Association to respond to medical emergencies and drive emergency patients to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.
On May 14, town voters approved a historic charter change that now places the appointment of the fire chief directly in the hands of the selectmen. Prior to that, the selectmen appointed a volunteer board of fire engineers each year, typically from the ranks of the fire department itself, and the fire engineers then chose a fire chief from among themselves.
At the May 2 town meeting and at the May 14 town election, voters also approved spending an additional $141,400 annually as a Proposition 2 1/2 operating override to man the fire station 24 hours a day. The permanent increase in the town's budget guarantees that one firefighter/paramedic would be at the station throughout the year and that a second person with similar training would be at the station during the summer season.
The town is also in the process of developing a request for proposals for the consultant to help with developing the new management model, town administrator Rex Peterson said Thursday.
The consultant will be paid from $60,000 in existing cash reserves set aside by voters at the May 2 town meeting.
Copyright 2013 - Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
