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2010 was an incredible year of great sadness for our community starting in January, starting off the year with the tragic death of
Karen Leduc and then a month later when Jody Marchand who was injured and her daughter Olivia who lost her life to what
appears to be in both cases domestic violence and then again our community lost yet another young life of Katie Enos from a pedestrian accident at the end of June. These tragedies had a profound effect on our rescue workers but also our community, but what makes our community so great is our resilience to overcome these tragedies. Uniting ourselves and
making us better and I am truly astonished by everyone who came together for the families but
also all the committees that came together to help bring awareness to domestic violence in the
hopes it will prevent these types of tragedies from happening here in Westford in the future.
Capital Program
This spring brought us the new replacement pumper from KME of Nesquehoning, PA and will
continue to work with the Capital Committee to re-establish a replacement program for our
fire apparatus and other department equipment.
Grants
As we continue with the SAFER grant (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response)
our share of this federal grants was $685,047.50 to date. As I previously reported, the SAFER
grant has given our town the ability to continue to staff the Rogers Station on a 24 hour basis.
As the Town starts to wind down with this grant we only have 6 quarterly payments to receive
totaling $158,352.52 and this will complete the obligation this Federal grant and I would like
to thank Captain Jim Barrett and the Finance department for all their hard work on this
throughout the year.
We again received the Student Awareness Fire Education (SAFE) grant for $4,900.00
allowing us to bring fire education material to the students of Westford. I would like to again
thank Lieutenant Parsons for his hard work over the past year. Congratulation goes out to
Lieutenant Parsons who was the 2010 recipient of the Life educator of the year award.
Paramedic Program
This August we finally started with one shift staffed with two Paramedics and will start our
second shift in January 2011. In addition our first two firefighters Dave Lefebvre and Matt
Svatek will finish school and will be tested by the state in March of 2011 allowing us to have
our third shift up and operational by spring of 2011. Continuing on with this program is Ryan
Monat and Dave McGloughlin who are currently attending Paramedic classes to become
certified and are in there second semester of the program.
Dr. Drake – Lowell General Hospital (Medical Control Doctor for our ALS Program)
addresses local and state dignitaries during our debut of the Advance Life Support program.
Paramedic Tim Bellemore, Dr Drake, Paramedic John Keough.
Training
During the past few years our training budget has been reduced due to budget constraints but
though the difficult economic times we continue to pursue training opportunities for our staff
and personnel and we could not have done it without the continued dedication of Lt. David
O’keefe and Lt. Robert Benoit. This past fall Town Meeting approved early retirement for a
few employees in the town and one such employee is Lt. Benoit who has been our Emergency
Medical Services Director for the last 15 years and has provided our Emergency Medical
Technicians the very best training that allows us to bring the best service to you and although
we are sad about his departure we want to thank him for all his hard work and dedication to
this department and the community.
Thank You
Again I would like to thank all the Department Heads, the Town Manager and the Board of
Selectmen for all the support and hard work this past year and the Finance and Capital
committee who work with us throughout the year to make our budgets work. I would also like
to thank Joe Joyce Fire Department office Manager, the Officers and members for all their
hard work throughout the whole year and to the Mutual Aid departments and Chiefs who we
depend on more and more each year. As we continue to improve our department it cannot be
done without saying thank you to the residents for your continued support each and every
year. No report would be complete without thanking my family Kathy, Maria and Kayla for
not only their hard work and dedication to work and school but for always being there for me
throughout the year providing me with all their love and support and for that I am grateful.
Richard J. Rochon, Fire Chief
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