Overview:
The Selectboard in Athol has approved the formation of a Fire Department Staffing and Facilities Advisory Committee to provide recommendations for improvements. The previous iteration of the committee was successful in developing a plan to hire four new firefighter/EMTs for the department. The new committee will focus on facilities as the department is getting cramped uptown and there are some issues with facilities. Last year's Annual Town Meeting approved spending $145,000 for repairs to the old station.
ATHOL – At its meeting on Jan. 6, the Selectboard approved the formation of a Fire Department Staffing and Facilities Advisory Committee, with the goal of providing recommendations for improvements.
Town Manager Shaun Suhoski noted that the previous iteration of the committee – known as the Fire Department Staffing Advisory Committee – was successful in developing a plan to hire four new firefighter/EMTs for the department, three through funding provided by a Proposition 2 ½ override, the fourth with funds written directly into the FY26 town budget.
The votes comes a month after several committee members, along with Suhoski, toured the old Exchange Street fire station to get an idea of its current condition and discuss preliminary ideas for its future.
“During the summertime, Shaun and I were talking a little bit,” said Ken Duffy, who will serve as the new committee’s chairperson. “And the next logical step in the process would be to look at facilities, because they are getting cramped uptown and there is some issue with facilities. The thought was to see if the Selectboard wanted us to take a look at the facilities and make some sort of recommendations about what could be done for the department. We thought it was a natural segue from the personnel issue.”
Duffy reminded the board that last year’s Annual Town Meeting approved spending $145,000, as recommended by the Capital Program Committee, for repairs to the old station.
“That envelope of the building was really starting to break down,” he told the board. “We did some door work, we got the roof done, we got the mess from the pigeons cleaned up. There was a lot of stuff that need to get cleaned up and moved out of there.”
Duffy explained that the original Staffing Advisory Committee did discuss facilities but found “that was bogging us down from the real emergency at the time, which was the staffing issue. It was bogging us down because there’s really not an ideal, perfect area downtown. Everything down there and to that side of the town has pros and cons, and it really prevented us from handling what we were really put in charge of making recommendations on, which was the staffing.”