LIVERMORE FALLS – The fire chief is requesting a full-time chief’s position be put in the budget for next year – at nearly $45,000 – and if that doesn’t fly, a $500 raise each for the chief and assistant chief.

Currently, fire Chief Ken Jones receives a $2,500-a-year stipend for the year-round position, and Assistant Chief Jim Leclerc receives $1,250. It has been six to eight years since the two positions have seen a stipend increase.

The fire department’s budget is proposed at $117,593 for 2007-08, which includes the chief’s position going full-time.

Jones said he requested the position be increased last year and is asking again this year.

It’s time the fire chief position is made full-time because there is more than enough work to do, he said.

There are some things not getting done now that need to be done, Jones said, but there is not enough time.

Those items include doing more building inspections to make sure they’re up to fire code, which also present hazards to firefighters.

“I’m not saying I’m the one for the job,” Jones said. “I’d really have to look into it.”

Jones has a full-time job at Wausau Paper in Jay.

Jones said nominations and elections for chief and assistant chief are in the near future, and he doesn’t even know if he or Leclerc will be re-elected. But whoever is elected should get the benefit of at least an increased stipend.

The department is no different than any other department in the town and he’s running it part-time, Jones said. He oversees 34 on-call firefighters and nine on-call officers, plus two junior firefighters. Officers get $9 an hour and firefighters get $8 an hour.

There is a lot of paperwork, record keeping and other work needed for the job, not including hours put into grant writing, he said.

“It’s getting time-consuming, very time-consuming,” Jones said. “I can tell you, it has put me to the point of stress.”

Jay Fire Rescue Chief Scott Shink has also asked for the fire chief position in Jay to become full-time for the past two years. So far, it hasn’t made it through the budget process.

Jones said he had checked with other fire chiefs to find out what would be a reasonable request for a fire chief to be paid and that is how he arrived at $44,500.

Selectman Bill Demaray said before a dollar figure is put on the chief’s position, it would be best to check with Maine Municipal Association on what an average chief makes for a town of comparable size.

“If we do decide to go with it, I don’t see us going with it this year,” Demaray said. “I’m not sure we’re quite ready for it this year, but it is something to think about.”

Jones said he understood but he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t present this to the board.

“The grants basically over-burdened us,” Jones said. “It’s nice to get money I can stand up here with a smile and say we brought in nearly $500,000” in grant funds.

But it took a lot of time and effort to prepare the grants and then to buy the equipment and put together a specification package for the tanker-pumper and then contract and order it.

The new E-One tanker is on order and expected to arrive in late summer, he said.