Adams Fire District Voters Reject Full-Time Chief, Appointed Positions
Fire District officials have been recommending a full-time paid fire chief for seven years. Egremont last week voted to hire two firefighters and set a salary of $100,000 for a full-time chief.
ADAMS, Mass. — Voters in the Fire District for the second time rejected a proposal for a full-time paid fire chief.
Article 3 failed 81-85 on the election ballot, as did companion questions for appointing the assistant engineers and the clerk/treasurer. They will remain elected positions.
Fire Chief John Pansecchi expressed his disappointment with the vote. The chief and the Prudential Committee had outlined their reasons for making changes at an information meeting last month.
"Anyone could be elected assistant engineer, anyone could be elected chief," said Pansecchi. "They don't have to be qualified and I can't make them take the courses to get the qualifications."
The town of Egremont at its town meeting last week voted to hire a full-time chief as well as two full-time firefighters.
"Towns smaller than Adams realize the need," said Pansecchi, adding that the responsibilities that fall to fire chiefs continues to climb and that it will be harder to fill the position.
The chief, who has a full-time job in addition to the fire chief post, said he plans to talk to his family on whether to continue when his term ends. He was elected to his first three-year term as chief in 2017.
The three articles on the district meeting warrant related to appointing the positions overwhelmingly passed but their failure at the ballot box precluded their enactment. Article 23, which would call for the bylaws to be amended, was voted down at the recommendation of the Prudential Committee as it was rendered moot by the ballot vote.
The district meeting did approve $190,563 for two full-time firefighters in anticipation of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.
Forty-seven voters attended the annual meeting. All but one article passed with no debate, including to appropriate from water rates a Water Department budget of $1,688,005, a utility truck for $101,300 and $17,000 for the Cheshire pilot program; use of free cash of $15,500 in anticipation of a federal firefighter safety equipment grant; and from retained earnings engineering for the Glen Street pump station at $62,000 and column replacement for the firehouse slab at $75,000; $40,000 in free cash to the reserve fund; and the authority to sell timber from the watershed.
The Fire Department budget of $689,233 was held by district member Kathy Foster, who questioned the department's accumulation of free cash instead of using it to lower the burden on taxpayers.
Foster said the department was sitting on $2.5 million in free cash. Victoria Lassonde, assistant treasurer, said certified free cash is at $728,000 after $155,000 was used at a special meeting and that the amount was $1 million the prior year.
Foster referred to mediation of a lawsuit against the district during which she said representatives had "misrepresented" the amount of free cash on hand.
"So to ask me to believe that you have only $800,000 instead of $2.5 million, I'm not really sure I can believe that," she said. "My experience says otherwise."
Committee Chair Thomas Satko said the reserves are there to cover emergencies and capital outlays, pointing to the spending articles already approved.
She also questioned the district's ability to raise funds outside of Proposition 2 1/2. Foster has questioned the application of Prop 2 1/2 at Selectmen's meetings, too, as the town collects the fees for the Fire District.
Satko said her questions were better directed to the state Department of Revenue or Division of Local Services.
"You're still billing us more than $100,000 more than you're spending every year," said Foster, adding "the Department of Revenue allows you to give back to the taxpayers. If you have an excess at the end, you don't have to keep it year after year."
She motioned to reduce the budget by $50,000, which received a second but failed to pass. The orginal budget motion passed with a handful of no votes.
Satko was re-elected to a three-year term with 167 votes; he was unopposed.
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