City still mum on finding new fire chief

Month 16 without a fire chief is about to be penned into the history books and the search to replace Daniel J. Gaumont has not yet yielded any permanent results.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said earlier this week that, obviously, the search is ongoing. While she has been reticent to say whether any of the three candidates to pass the Civil Service exam have been eliminated from the search, she did reveal that at least one of them is still in the running.

To recap, Mr. Gaumont left the city in March 2009 – he was replaced by Deputy Fire Chief Milton Sayre who pushed back his September 2009 retirement about seven months to help the department during the search.

Mr. Sayre then retired April 9 for greener pastures. During his exit interview, he told me there’s a large backyard and a riding lawn mower he’d like to get better acquainted with.

His absence leaves the chief and deputy chief positions vacant, meaning the department’s five battalion chief are now running the show, depending on who is in at the time.

A call to the Massey Street fire department last week yielded interesting results: a man identified himself as “acting battalion chief” meaning he was filling in for the position that particular day. It appears that rank-and-file members are overseeing the $8 million department whenever they are called upon to do so.

A trip to the Massey Street station earlier this week also had an interesting feel. A “what have you heard” mentality is settling in at the fire department towards City Hall’s approach to filling the chief and deputy chief positions.

My response: “I haven’t heard anything; what about you?”

Mrs. Corriveau has not yet revealed when she would like to fill those positions, but she does have options. Three people including a current battalion chief passed the chief exam, another seven passed the deputy chief exam.

Happy hunting.