Southwick Select Board conducts public safety discussions

Feb. 16, 2021 | Dennis Hackett
dennis@thereminder.com

SOUTHWICK – At the Southwick Select Board’s Feb. 8 meeting, the board interviewed and approved two firefighter and emergency medical technicians to the Southwick Fire Department and agreed to sign a letter of intent with WestCOMM regional dispatch.

Rather than having a traditional question and answer interview, the board had a general discussion about the job with both firefighter and EMT candidates.

After Board Vice Chair Joe Deedy asked what standard one of the candidates, Josh Girard, held himself to, he said he had to hold himself even higher than most paramedics.

“I’ve grown up with a fire chief as a father and you are held to a different standard. I’ve come to accept that and that’s the standard I hold myself to. What other people might aim for, I have to aim a little bit higher because people think it’s given to you and you didn’t earn anything, so I have to take extra steps and motivation to prove I do belong,” he said.

Before officially being named a paramedic, Girard said he still had some work ahead of him to be certified.

“Right now, I just have to finish up my ride time and I’ll be right into testing. Hopefully I’ll be going into my 30 calls and working alongside everybody else. I’m hoping it’s a couple months but maybe not even,” he said.

The second candidate, Mike Newman, said he was looking to join a career fire department and further his education.

“I just got my paramedic license a couple of days ago and my goal is to get on a career fire department. I’ve been thinking about furthering my education, I want to get my respiratory therapy and work as an RT in the hospital along with doing fire full time. I just finished school and I would like to practice paramedicine until I’m comfortable before I plan on furthering any medical experience,” he said.

Newman added that he would do the job as long as the town wanted him on board.

“If I’m selected by Southwick, I plan to give it the best run as long as you guys will have me,” he said.

During the discussion, Board Chair Doug Moglin said it is difficult to keep firefighters for the long haul.

“This is a career firefighter medic position. It’s obviously a challenging business to get people to come on and stay. We’ve got a great department, great leadership, great equipment and it’s a great town. Talking to some of the guys that are on right now, it’s the right amount of calls to keep you sharp and have some downtime in between,” he said.

The board unanimously agreed to name both candidates to firefighters before also extending provisional firefighter Shane Hope through the end of June.

After discussing changes to paid leave as a result of COVID-19 at a previous meeting, the board approved an updated policy and Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart explained some of the changes.

“If the exposure is resulting in a quarantine due to exposure in the workplace, determined through contact tracing, then the employee can be on paid leave and would not have to use their leave benefits. If they are coming back from vacation, we have extended that to allow them to use their personal time,” he said.

Among the meeting’s regular business, the board also agreed to sign a letter of intent with WestCOMM regional dispatch to begin their grant process.

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