TURNER — Fire Chief Nathan Guptill, 35, resigned Tuesday night, ending his nearly 20-year career with the Fire Department, four of them as chief.
He said Friday that his resignation was prompted in part by a disagreement with selectmen over road closures during the July Fourth parade Monday. He said he and selectmen have “butt heads” during his years as chief, but when they told him he didn’t have the authority to close roads for safety reasons in preparation for the parade, he decided to resign.
Asked for comment Friday, Town Manager Kurt Schaub said, “I don’t know any department that doesn’t butt heads with the board of selectmen. Especially emergency services won’t always see eye-to-eye with the board of selectmen.”
He said, “The Board of Selectmen accepted his resignation with regret and gratitude for his near 20 years of service.”
“I’ve worked with him for about four years,” Schaub said. “He’s responded to more calls than anyone before. It’s going to be difficult to replace him.”
Schaub said in the interim “we’ve appointed Rescue Chief Lisa Bennett as the administrative chief.”
Regarding filling the position, he said, “Starting less than a year ago, we now have a couple paid premium firefighters to man the central station. This is a major change for a small town fire department, but one of the results of that change is that it seems like a good time to see how the system is structured to determine the best way to move forward.”
Guptill started with the department when he was 16 and was the first junior firefighter. He worked his way up through the ranks and was appointed chief when his father, Rodney Guptill, retired in 2018.
Guptill said he plans to take time for himself and begin helping at his family’s auto repair shop, Rodney’s Repair.
“I’ve had a snowmobile for over a year, but I was never able to take it on a trail for a ride because of work,” he said. “Now that I have some free time, I plan to enjoy taking time for myself.”
He thanked the town. “I love this town, I grew up here, I went to school here, and I worked here. Thank you to the town residents for letting me be their fire chief.”
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