By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

MEXICO – Roxbury has not had a fire chief or active fire department for months, a selectman explained Tuesday night at a meeting on mutual aid among area towns.

Municipal officials and firefighters from Andover, Byron and Mexico got a better understanding of Roxbury’s situation during the nearly two-hour meeting to resolve mutual aid issues with Roxbury. They also helped new Selectmen Douten “Dan” Thomas and Alan Hodgkins understand what Roxbury should look for when buying a new firetruck and obtaining manpower training.

Roxbury senior Selectman Tim Gallant did not attend the meeting.

At the start of meeting, Thomas and Hodgkins explained the town’s situation.

Hodgkins, a self-employed carpenter, and Thomas, a NewPage Corp. employee, were elected at the March 7 town meeting. Prior to that meeting, Fire Chief Gordon Touchette was asked to step down by other selectmen, Thomas said. When that happened, 90 percent of the department’s volunteer call force also left, he said.

“Dan and I have only been on the board for three months, but we inherited no fire department and a dilapidated building,” Hodgkins said of Roxbury’s new municipal office.

At a special town meeting last fall, a majority of Roxbury residents agreed to buy the former Northwest Precision Inc. machine shop building, and renovate it into a town office and fire station complex.

The building and 1 acres of land are about three miles south of the town’s former municipal building along Roxbury Road, also known as Route 17.

Thomas said that neither he nor Hodgkins were “up to speed” with fire department-related matters.

Mexico Fire Chief Gary Wentzell said the bigger issue was determining mutual aid responses to emergency calls between Andover, Byron, Mexico and Roxbury.

Mexico, Wentzell said, responds automatically to any structure fire in Roxbury and Byron.

“If it’s a structure fire, we’re going, and we know that Roxbury and Byron will probably be there,” he said. “But we were gambling. We knew we were going to structure fires, but we didn’t know who was going to be there.”

After more discussion, former Roxbury Fire Chief Gordon Touchette, who was at the meeting, said he was willing to return as the chief.

“As long as these two selectmen agree, I’ll answer calls tonight,” he said.

But Thomas asked for and got an extension on resolving the mutual aid issue until Roxbury selectmen next meet at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 6, in the new town office, to officially reappoint Touchette.

Thomas also apologized “on behalf of the town of Roxbury,” and thanked Mexico for “giving us a chance to work through this.”