By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

ROXBURY – Two of Roxbury’s three selectmen reappointed former town fire chief Gordon Touchette as the chief at Monday night’s special board meeting.

Selectmen Douten “Dan” Thomas and Alan Hodgkins also named Byron Fire Chief Wayne Hamel as Touchette’s assistant chief, and said that Hamel and Touchette would be ordering the town’s new firetruck within two weeks. It takes a year, Thomas said, for a new truck to be built to specifications.

Senior Selectman Tim Gallant did not attend the meeting.

In October, Roxbury got a $154,800 grant to buy a new firetruck from the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

At town meeting in March, voters agreed to raise $17,200 as the town’s match.

Prior to that meeting, Touchette was asked to step down by other selectmen.

Thomas and Hodgkins, who were elected at that meeting, said that they have since been trying to restructure the Fire Department and locate it at a central site.

Hamel said that Roxbury currently has 12 firefighters and a 1974 pumper truck.

Thomas said that Roxbury’s new firetruck is to be a sister truck to Byron’s 2005 Kenworth tanker/pumper, which Byron paid for with a $149,000 federal grant. Byron’s truck was delivered in March.

At Monday night’s meeting, Thomas and Hodgkins produced a sign-up sheet seeking volunteers for the Fire Department and someone “to go after grants for training and equipment.”

“People here are under the impression that we haven’t had an active fire department, but the town paid out (to volunteers) when they had to go to a car accident in Byron, and to a grass fire in Byron. We’ve been having a fire department,” Thomas said.