CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Select Board last week voted to eliminate the post of harbormaster and turn the boat over the Fire Department at the request of both the police and fire chiefs.

 

Interim Police Chief Tim Garner gave the board a history of the post and how it came to fall under the Police Department.

 

"The vote was received by the Police Department as part of our grant. I think it was in development in 2009, maybe as part of community policing-type grant that we got, and it was specifically designated for fire and police, and decided on a patrol and rescue," he said. "So basically, if something happened on the lake, we'd be able to have a boat that would get access to go out and do what we got to do."

 

He said the first harbormaster would patrol Hoosac Lake only to educate and advise as they were not allowed to enforce laws.

 

"He would go out on the lake periodically and not enforcing, because it's not our lake, he would go and do PR work and just advise people about life jackets or give them a safe boating book or something like that. Just basically PR work," he said.

 

Select Board member Michelle Francesconi said this was because it could lead to trouble if they were attempted to enforce rules.

 

"I think one of the issues that we were running into, even with the harbormaster position, and I can remember with the vote in general, was the perception that it was an enforcement vote, and it would put somebody in a precarious situation, or could potentially put the harbor master in a bad situation, just if they were perceived as a law enforcement officer, because you don't know what you're going to come up on, either be drunks or drugs, or any other crimes on the water, too," she said.

 

When Harbormaster Paul Maloney retired, it was taken over by a resident who later died, said Garner, and since then it has been Adam Healey, a Police Department employee. The chief said no one really wanted the position and thought it should be eliminated and the boat transferred to the Fire Department.

 

"We never had a harbormaster, nor do I think we need one. That lake's not ours, it belongs to the state. If the state wants to patrol it, let them go out and patrol it," he said. "Therefore, what we're requesting is the harbormaster position as we know it, go away, and the boat gets turned over to the fire chief, in which he can use it for training."

 

The boat could also be used for educating boaters and PR, Garner continued, but "the enforcement part of it is not us, it's the state."

 

Fire Chief Thomas Francesconi said it would be great to use the boat for water rescue and that his department would take over its maintenance.

 

"We obviously have no objection to it, because we use it for water rescue," he said. "We would then be responsible for, obviously, winterizing it and taking it on the lake and that kind of thing."

 

They discussed the Fourth of July patrolling, as that is one of the busiest days on the lake, and suggested having a conversation with the Environmental Police if they will be out there that day.

 

Francesconi will have one of his captains who is an avid boater be the point of contact and help train and choose who will take the boat out as well as share with the Police Department so they can still patrol once in a while. Whoever uses it has to have completed the boater safety course.

 

Board said someone would have to do dock permitting, though Town Administrator Jennifer Morse said it's rare they get an application.

 

In other business, the fire chief asked for reserve funds to cover a clerical error in the clerks office regarding the payments on the new fire truck. The town was charged a total of $13,906.94 in fees, which was about $7,000 per month for insurance and loan payments, while the truck sat in North Attleboro. That was paid out of the department's expense account, which significantly reduced the operating budget.

 

He said he also has two sets of turnout gear that are ripped and unserviceable and must be replaced immediately, not deferred until the new fiscal year. Just to get the pants and a coat he said is more than $4,000. He is asking for the fee reimbursement to put toward a repair bill and the gear.

 

He also had to replace a fire hose that had failed inspection because it was filled with holes at a cost of more than $18,000 out of his $62,000 budget. He was also hit with almost $44,000 for certifications and repairs, too, with some of that coming out of the emergency medical services budget.

 

"I got hit pretty hard this year with stuff breaking. Kind of, we roll the dice and we fix as much as we can in house, but there's only so much we can do in house that without paying out on it," Francesconi said. "So those were the kind of the big-ticket items. I understand I'm kind of giving you a 30,000- foot view of my issue, but this is why I'm back today asking for a reserve fund transfer to cover me just on the turnout gear and the repair and then I'm going to put everything else on hold and keep my fingers crossed that nothing breaks."

 

The Finance Committee did not have a quorum so expected to vote on the transfer this week.