Police-Fire Merger Plan Met by Skepticism in New Hampshire
Updated: 11-10-2005 09:21:52 PM
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By SCOTT DOLAN
The Union Leader (Manchester NH)
GOFFSTOWN -- Residents had a mixed reaction yesterday to this week's news that the board of selectmen voted to eliminate Fire Chief Frank Carpentino's position with plans to merge the police and fire departments with shared duties in the future.
As the firefighters' union continued to rally against the selectmen's decision and the police union began scheduling a special meeting to take a position, many residents said they knew nothing about the selectmen's decision.
During budget deliberations Monday, the five selectmen voted unanimously to cut the fire chief's job and named the current police chief, Michael French, as overseer of both departments as director of safety services.
As the two departments merge, Selectman Chairman Gossett McRae said, police would have the opportunity to cross-train to perform firefighters' duties and firefighters could attain certification as police.
A group of men who gather regularly at the Dunkin' Donuts on Mast Road in Pinardville said they felt the selectmen made a mistake.
Leo Charest, who has lived in Goffstown for his entire 83 years, said over a cup of coffee that voters will likely reject the plan at the annual election because police and firefighters won't mesh.
"You're going to find out what I think in March," Charest said. "It's not going to work."
At the next table over, two former Goffstown residents and a friend from Manchester's West Side, felt similarly.
"I think it's two separate jobs, and I don't see how one could do the job of the other effectively," said Ernest St. Cyr, of Manchester.
St. Cyr and his brother in-law, Ernest Scholes, called over a friend, Walter Leach Jr., who moved from his native Goffstown to New Boston.
"That's a bad deal," Leach said of eliminating Carpentino's job. "The fire chief should take care of the firefighters. The police chief should take care of the police."
At Sully's Superette, on North Mast Road, Normand Hebert said he supports the selectmen's decision.
"It's all right with me. I'm agreeable to that," Hebert said.
Another shopper, Nate Lambert, also of Goffstown, said he opposes the decision.
"Unless the cost savings is immense, I don't think that'll go forward," Lambert said. "You have too many jobs."
Although the president of the firefighters' union, fire Lt. William Connor, said the members plan to fight the selectmen's decision, the police union has yet to take an official position.
"At this point we haven't met as a union collectively yet. We are planning to take a position," Patrolman Keith Chauvette, president of the 14-member union, said.
He did say, however, that the officers he talked to were surprised at the suddenness of the selectmen's decision Monday.
"There have been some concerns over it. Anytime you get something handed to you like that, it's a shocker," he said. "There were a lot of questions at all the meetings and not many answers."
Selectmen Robert Wheeler said the selectmen made the decision Monday as part of a effort to cut $1 million from the proposed budget presented by the various town departments.
Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux said yesterday she does not yet have the final tallied budget figures from what selectmen approved Monday.