TURNER – Interim fire Chief Shane Arsenault, on the job since May 1, has added to raging controversy of who should head the town’s volunteer fire department.
Town Manager James Catlin said Arsenault called him Wednesday to tell him he would be getting an e-mail shortly. It came, stating that Arsenault was resigning, with regret.
Catlin said he has the resignation in hand, but Arsenault remains head of the department until selectmen meet and accept it.
“The board appoints, and the board terminates,” he said. “Shane’s appointment remains in effect until the board accepts it.”
That could happen Monday evening. Selectmen had established a process for seating a new department head after long-time Chief Steven A. Fish resigned abruptly and unexpectedly under pressure on May 1 at a board meeting. After accepting Fish’s resignation, the board appointed, on an interim basis until July 3, Arsenault to the top spot.
More than 40 members of the department and their families packed the small town office meeting room to hear Fish quit. They expected selectmen to appoint Arsenault full-time then since the Turner Firefighters Association had elected him as chief.
When the board voted to make Arsenault only interim chief, and said it will seek applicants for the permanent post, volunteers and their families were enraged.
Arsenault himself said of the action: “It’s disgusting.”
The Firefighters Association has no formal duties or responsibilities regarding fire department matters. But its members most recently have come to expect that selectmen will heed their interests.
Fish resigned May 1 after more than a year of legal haggling and official squabbling over the failure of selectmen to reappoint him in June 2005 to the post he had held for more than 10 years with 17 years of additional service. When the board finally did reappoint Fish – with conditions – relations between the department and the chief and the board continued to be strained.
Much of the discord came from the failure of Fish and Arsenault to get a fire vehicle that has been out of action for more than two years back in service. Last Monday, selectmen voted to take the job of getting the truck back on the road away from Fish and Arsenault, and turn it over to a local mechanic, Rodney Guptil. The board instructed that the cost for the job would be paid from the fire department budget.
Selectmen established a schedule for naming a new chief that included accepting applications until Thursday, June 8; screening applications on Monday, June 12; interviews with finalists on Tuesday, June 20; and appointing a chief on Monday, July 3.
Selectmen couldn’t be contacted late Thursday for comment on the latest development.
In his resignation, Arsenault alludes to most of the difficulties the leaders and the department have had with the board over the past couple of years, a board that has had changes itself, including the resignation of Lori Fish, the former chief’s wife.
Arsenault said he was resigning due to “recent decisions in which the selectman (sic) made this past Monday, June 5th without having proper communication with myself first leads me to believe that working together to help this town is obviously not an option in their eyes.”
He added: “Events that happened with prior Fire Chief Steve Fish I believe have followed myself, which is unfair. I should have been given a clean slate as a new chief and not been judged on prior incidents.”
Arsenault said he hopes to remain with the department.
“It is my goal to still remain an active member of the Turner Volunteer Fire Department and I will do all that I can to ensure that the citizens of this town are still well protected.”
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