ATHOL — Town officials Tuesday night honored Athol’s police and firefighters at a First Responders Appreciation Program held in the auditorium at Town Hall.
Following brief opening remarks from Steve Raymond, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, new full-time Police Chief Craig Lundgren was sworn in by Town Clerk Nancy Burnham.
Chief Lundgren said, “I’m very appreciative of this new opportunity. I’ve been helping Athol out since November and have gotten to know the officers, dispatch and command staff, and have found them all to be dedicated to serving their town and making their police department better. My main goal at this point is to help prepare inhouse candidates for advancement.”
In his remarks, Town Manager Shaun Suhoski noted that both the police and fire departments are now under new leadership, with Lundgren now at the helm of the Police Department, and the Fire Department now being led by Chief Joseph Guarnera, who assumed that position last October. A number of other changes have also taken place, according to Suhoski.
“Over the past two years,” Suhoski told the ADN, “the town’s public safety departments have undergone transition in both leadership and operations. In October 2018 all public safety dispatch operations were transitioned from two call centers – one at fire department, one at police department – to a consolidated center housed at the Police Department headquarters. Concurrently, both hardware and software upgrades were implemented in the dispatch center including installation of Enhanced 911 capability which required substantial training for our professional staff.”
“With new leadership in both departments,” he said, “and the consolidation of dispatch achieved and still improving, the Board of Selectmen wanted to honor all of those who respond to folks in need at the ceremony. The event marked appreciation for the challenges faced by our first responders each and every day and provided an opportunity to look towards the future with enhanced training opportunities for both departments.”
“I was also very proud to see fire and police staff offer support and a gift to Javan Fox,” Suhoski concluded. “He has endured much during his ongoing rehabilitation but – as witnessed (Tuesday) night – he has an entire community of support behind him.”
At Tuesday’s event, Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Parker and members of the Fire Department presented Fox with a new bicycle.
The 13-year-old boy suffered serious injuries when he collided with a pickup truck near West Royalston Road at Logan Road during heavy rains on Tuesday, August 14. Even though he was wearing a helmet, Javan suffered head injuries, in addition to facial fractures, fractures to his vertebrae, and a broken wrist. He was first admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and was later transferred to Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Brighton. The ARMS eighth-grader was released from the hospital just before Thanksgiving of last year.
A proclamation from the Board of Selectmen lauded “individuals, both career and volunteer, from 911 Dispatchers, Law Enforcement, Firefighters, Emergency Medical Services, Search and Rescue, and other organizations in the Public Safety sector.”
The proclamation noted that first responders risk their own safety in service to the citizens of Athol and confront “dangerous and uncertain situations” on a daily basis, adding “our community will never be able to repay the sacrifices that our first responders make.”