By Ronald Leir
HARRISON –
On the same day this town’s governing body proposed a ramping down of its Fire Department command structure, it also called for the hiring of a civilian fire director.
This came in the form of an ordinance introduced by the mayor and Town Council at a special afternoon meeting Friday, July 8.
Mayor Ray McDonough figures to convene a public hearing on the ordinance “within the next two to four weeks.”
The legislation would also revise the Fire Department’s “Table of Organization” (authorized workforce personnel) by reducing the number of battalion chiefs from four to none, and by cutting the number of captains from 13 to five.
It would also create the new rank of fire lieutenant, “to a maximum of four, at a maximum yearly salary for 2011 of $95,834 (just below the pay level for a police sergeant).”
And it would “add the title of Director of Fire, Director of Public Safety, or the equivalent Civil Service Commission title, part-time, at a maximum yearly salary of $50,000.”
To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.
