POLAND – Selectmen are expected to set the date for a special town meeting in June to establish a new fire and rescue department. The issue was tabled at the annual town meeting on April 26.
After a public hearing Wednesday night, Town Manager Richard Chick said that he expects the special town meeting to be held June 16. A location had not been determined. On Tuesday, selectmen are expected to set the meeting’s time, date and place.
Poland is in the process of combining its separate fire and rescue departments into one department with a chief who would be named at a later date. It comes at a time when Fire Chief W. Ballard Nash is retiring.
The proposed structure would be a fire chief and assistant chief over the entire department, with deputy chiefs and captains at each station.
Chick said in an interview in April that he didn’t think the cost of a combined fire and rescue department would be any more than the town is currently spending on separate departments. Poland has both hourly and per-diem employees working for the rescue department because of a lack of volunteers.
The town manager said Wednesday that the new department might need to be fine-tuned after its inception. “I’ve got no illusions that it’s going to have to change over time. We’ll see how it works in the real world,” Chick said.
When the Mechanic Falls Town Council and the boards of selectmen of Minot and Poland met together on May 22 to consider future regional approaches there was discussion about sharing fire and rescue dispatching within two years and the possibility of forming a joint fire and rescue department within several years.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department is scheduled to begin dispatching Poland’s fire and rescue calls on July 1. The other towns are considering the same option.
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