NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen are expected to discuss how to design a full-time fire chief position as soon as Thursday night, when they meet for the first time since annual town meeting.

On Monday, annual town meeting voters approved an alternative plan proposed by fire Chief Dennis Yates to increase the Fire Department budget to $210,000 and to approve a full-time fire chief position as a way to cut costs.

The action on the town meeting floor not only raised the amount the selectmen and Budget Committee were prepared to spend by $24,000, but created a full-time position that had no job description or benefit package in place.

The move by Yates to propose what the department members felt was a more equitable deal was done when the Fire Department’s proposed budget was cut from $221,605 in fiscal 2013 to a recommended $186,000 this coming fiscal year by both the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee.

While Town Manager David Holt and others praised the chief for his work, they also questioned the financial wisdom of the move.

“It’s just an awfully hard year; it scares me for financial reasons,” Holt told voters, who also rebuffed other recommendations by Holt, the selectmen and Budget Committee to cut budgets.

“He did what he thought he had to do, and I did what I had to do,” Yates said Wednesday of Holt’s recommendations.

Holt told Yates and other department heads earlier this year to prepare for 10 percent cuts for the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, because of drastic state cuts being proposed by Gov. Paul LePage.

Yates has contended that his plan would save the town money in overtime and other areas.

Firefighters are paid an average $10 per hour on a call, regardless of whether it turns out to be a false alarm or other matter that requires little attention.

Last year, for example, the fire department had 23 calls in one day and spent $1,820 to pay some of its 45 volunteers who turned out.

Although the fire chief is responsible for the largest number of employees of any department in town — a total of 45 volunteer firefighters presently — Yates said his is the only department without a full-time head.

Yates did receive a stipend of $2,000 annually for his position — plus a $10.50-per-hour rate for a call — for a total of about $8,000 to date.

Under his proposal, he would be paid $17.50 per hour, the same hourly wage as the code enforcement officer.

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.

Both committees said they needed more time to study the measure and were prepared to form a study committee to consider the merits of a full-time chief, but that action became moot when voters approved Yates’ plan.

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