NORWAY — Last year, 17 firefighters were called out for a possible explosion, fire Chief Dennis Yates said.

“Someone heard an explosion on the next street down (from where he was). Seventeen people came running,” he said.

Arriving at the scene in moments, he assessed the noise as a probable firecracker, he said.

At an average of $10 an hour, the firefighters were paid $1,700 by the town for responding to the call.

A year ago, the Fire Department had 23 calls in one day and paid $1,820 to firefighters who responded to them.

These two examples Yates cited as reasons why the town should have a full-time fire chief who could, in part, handle minor calls such as false fire alarm activations and carbon monoxide investigations without calling out the department.

“If they want to save some money and keep the Fire Department as it is, they need to put in a full-time fire chief,” he said.

Yates receives a stipend of $2,000 annually plus $10.50 an hour for calls. Last year, he was paid $7,935.

He said he works hundreds of hours each year without pay and responds from his work sites.

The Fire Department’s proposed budget for 2013-14 is $186,000. It was $221,605 for 2012-13.

Over the past few years, the department has written successful applications for about $235,000 in federal grants to the department, Yates noted.

When he and other department heads were told to prepare for 10 percent cuts in their budgets for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, he proposed accomplishing the cut by establishing a full-time position of fire chief. Although the chief is responsible for the largest number of employees of any town department — a total of 45 firefighters presently — Yates said his is the only department without a full-time head.

Yates pointed out that the fire chief is responsible for numerous mandatory tasks, including training of personnel, ladder inspections, ladder truck and cascade air quality certification records, the respiratory protection program and scores of other mandated compliance programs. Mandatory and expensive annual inspections, such as hose testing, could be accomplished by a full-time chief, along with hours worth of paperwork.

A master electrician by trade, Yates has also proposed doing the electrical inspections — a move he said could save about $3,000 and, in part, allow the town to recoup electrical permit fees the state now takes.

“Do you want to give up services? I don’t think so,” Yates said of the possible ramifications of continuing to run the department on a part-time basis.

He made the case for a full-time chief to the Budget Committee and Board of Selectmen this year but, with budget cuts topping 7 percent across departments this year, neither board committed to the idea.

Instead, the Budget Committee will recommend to voters at the annual town meeting June 17 that a study committee be appointed to consider the merits of hiring a full-time chief.

Voters will have an opportunity to discuss the Fire Department budget at a public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at the Town Office and at the annual town meeting.

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