Merger of Weathersfield fire companies proceeds in spite of tension

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
ASCUTNEY, Vt. —  The Weathersfield fire commission held a regular meeting at the Ascutney fire station Thursday night, and agreed to work with the select board toward the concept of a single municipal department. Commission members from both Ascutney and West Weathersfield volunteer fire associations were respectful of each other and got budget work done, and the only sparks came from a few public comments.

This was the first meeting of the commission since Monday’s select board meeting where years of tension over a proposed creation of a single municipal fire department came to a head. The select board voted to proceed with the idea. Kelly Murphy, who sits on both the select board and the fire commission, said on Thursday that the select board had decided on Monday to “scope it out.”

During the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting, two persons in the audience who did not state their names accused fire-commission chair Nancy McMenemy of being “disrespectful” during the Monday select board meeting. McMenemy’s comments during that meeting from the audience were mostly aimed at select board member Tom Leach, whom she claimed had a conflict of interest as a member of the West Weathersfield association. Leach had earlier voted in an association meeting to make the association assets available to the town as part of a new merged or municipal department. Leach declined to recuse himself from the select board motion, saying doing so would not help anything, and the other board members declined to press the matter before the vote, which ultimately passed without a negative vote.

At Thursday’s commission meeting, McMenemy maintained her position, saying Leach “should not have had anything to do” with the select board vote that night. She did, however, attempt to present a neutral stance for herself, saying “I live in the center of Weathersfield … I have no affiliation with either side.”

The fire commission then proceeded to regular business, and when it later returned to the matter, the members quickly concluded two things: All members of both the commission and the select board needed to be involved in future discussion of the new municipal department, and due to the press of the budget cycle and regular business, a separate series of meetings needed to be created.

No specific vote or action was taken, but it was informally agreed, pending select board approval,   to temporarily suspend the fire commission and use its meeting time to work together with the select board. One Thursday meeting a month was also insufficient, they agreed, so they are likely to also meet a second or third Thursday evening as well, or on some other day. No specific dates were set.

The budget work involved deciding how much money to ask for in several line items, all of which  can be revised by the select board prior to town meeting. Although the budget may not include the desired appropriations for it, a “wish list” was agreed to by both associations, of new dry hydrants they would like to create in various parts of town to provide better fire protection. A dry hydrant is a pipe apparatus usually unconnected to any water main, but available to receive and send water from a source during a firefighting operation.