From the 2009 Annual Town Report
I can’t believable how fast the years have gone by since 1973 when we had our first permanent Chief George Rogers, who was the only full-time personnel in the fire department until 1985. Capt Ducharme, Capt. Woitowicz and I were the first permanent firefighter/EMTs hired in 1985 and have seen a lot over the years. As the dynamics of the town changed so did the fire department and the need to increase the full-time personnel to the department to keep pace with the demands of service and the difficulties with maintaining a call force. Although a lot has changed, Westford continues to maintain a small call force to supplement the department when called upon. However, the years have passed rather quickly and the department has seen its first set of retirements from our full-time personnel
in the department. Our first retirement this year was with Jim Sheridan in April serving the Town 22 years and then again this past July with Captain Dan O’Donnell serving the Town 38 years and I would like to personally thank each of them for their proud dedication to the department and wish them the best in their retirement. With retirements comes the opportunity for other staff to advance their career. After a lengthy process which included a written exam and oral interviews with Chief Officers from other parts of the commonwealth, James Barrett was promoted to Captain; David O’Keefe was promoted to Lieutenant and also allowed us to opportunity to change the Fire Prevention position to a Lieutenants position. The Fire Prevention position has been held by Don Parsons for the last 10 years and I would like to congratulate these three individuals for all of their hard work and wish them well on the new challenges that face them.
Capital Program
The department received funding for two capital projects. The first will be the replacement of a 20 year pumper. The award for this replacement went to KME of Nesquehoning, PA. and we hope to receive the new pumper by late spring of 2010. Our second capital project was the replacement of the boiler at fire headquarters which was about 20 years old. This included a conversion from oil to natural gas and the installation of a 95% efficient boiler which we hope to see some long term savings from this conversion.
Grants
The Town has again been very fortunate over the last fiscal year with the opportunity and awarding of grants to help offset the town’s cost. Our share of grants that we received for the Federal Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant was $269,840.00. The SAFER grant has given our town the ability to continue to staff the Rogers Station on a 24 hour basis. In addition we received another grant from EOPS (Executive Office of Public Safety, which was for $16,300.00 allowing us to install fire detection equipment in our fire station which is now required. This protects our investment in our equipment and saved the towns expense on capital and has been removed from our plan. Our last grant for $4,464.62 this year was from the State for Student Awareness Fire Education (SAFE) allowing us to bring fire
education material to the students of Westford. I would like to thank Captain Barrett and Lieutenant Parsons for their hard work over the past year on these grants.
Paramedic Program
The Town of Westford has been with both Emerson Advance Life Support (ALS) and GLEMS ALS services since both groups started some 25yrs ago and we have a strong professional relationship that I believe will continue in the future. As you know Emerson ALS, has been having financial difficulty over the last several years keeping its service intact, however they are now at a point of eliminating it all together. They have been working with the area Fire Chiefs from the 13 communities for other models to look at and have until October of 2010 to come up with an alternative plan. As the Fire Chief for the Town of Westford, my mission is to be able to provide the best possible care to the residents of Westford. In fact I have had moving towards having our department expand to the Advanced Life Support (ALS) system. It has been
part of my 5 year plan and it was also highlighted in the Fire Study that was done for the Town “the development of expanded Advanced Life Support (ALS) services should be considered, especially if hospital-based ALS systems cease operations”. With the events that are occurring at Emerson ALS, I feel it prudent to now bring forward the ability to provide ALS services in-house and have received this approval from the Town Manager and Board of Selectmen this past summer to move in this direction. I would like to thank the committee that we have established specifically to assist in the set up and operational aspects. A tremendous amount of work goes into this process and their contributions are greatly appreciated. The committee members including myself are: Capt Steve Ducharme, Capt. James Barrett, Lt. Bob Benoit, Lt. Mark Valcourt, FF/EMT Jim Lamy and FF/ParamedicTim Bellemore. We are pleased on the progression of this program and have 2 individuals
Dave Lefebvre and Matt Svatek that are currently attending Paramedic classes to become certified.
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Training
I would like to thank the Fire and EMS training directors Lt. David O’Keefe and Lt. Robert Benoit for all their hard work during a fiscally challenging budget year to provide training to our personnel and is my feeling that training is paramount to the service that we provide. As I have said in the past that “A knowledgeable and highly skilled firefighter is more likely to perform their functions in a safe and efficient manner, and is less likely to be injured but also to stay current and safe in an increasingly dangerous working environment.” As the economy improves we need to refocus our efforts to this area thus improving our readiness to serve you the residents.
Thank You
I would like to thank Office Manager Joe Joyce for his commitment and hard work throughout the year. I would also like to thank the area Chiefs and department members who support our community with mutual aid when needed. I want to welcome Andy Sheehan as the assistant Town Manager and thank him as well as Town Manager Jodi Ross and the Board of Selectmen, Department Heads for their continued support. I would again like to thank you, the residents for not only your support this year but also the past years, helping us be a better department and better prepared for our community. I would also like to thank my wife Kathy for all of her support all year long and over the years and to Kayla and Maria for their understanding for all the work commitments that keep me from family events and all their hard work in school and sports
throughout the year.
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