By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WEST WINDSOR, Vt. — When Hurricane Irene swamped West Windsor, along with a lot of other places, it was Jim Kenyon who knew where to find help.
For some 20 years, Kenyon — a career firefighter — has served as the town’s emergency management coordinator. Now 82 and coping with some health issues, he said, Kenyon recently decided the time had come to step down. He gave a letter of resignation to the select board, and will leave the post at the end of the year.
In closing out active duty, he joins firefighter Joseph Ouelette, who served with the department for 60 years before taking honorary status two years ago, and Fire Chief Michael Spackman, who previously announced his retirement, effective next year.
Asked to name some of the more notable incidents he has worked, Kenyon remembers how Irene dumped so much rain that “there was three feet of water in the firehouse.”
On another occasion, he said, the school had to be evacuated, and he had to deal with the logistics in making sure each child was accounted for. Another time, there was an oil spill — not easy to clean up.
Despite his long service to the town, Kenyon doesn’t want to leave the impression he kept all of the infrastructure details in his head. The secret to his success, he said, was in the “green books.” Those are the 14 volumes of town information: where equipment is stored, where to find bulldozers and backhoes, how to access a fence, who has the keys, and so on.
“The biggest thing is these green books,” he said. In an emergency, he pointed out, responders need that information in a hurry. That’s what the green books are for. And Kenyon knew just where to look to find the information he needed.
Now the select board has the challenge of finding someone to replace Kenyon, and although the job comes with a stipend of $2,000, it may not be easy. The new person, after all, will have to take the time to learn everything in the green books, and will be following someone who knew them cold.
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