HOWLAND, Maine — An Orono firefighter and paramedic with extensive training experience is the town’s new part-time fire chief, officials said Friday.
Town Manager William Lawrence picked Josh McNally of Bradford from among three finalists to replace interim Fire Chief Robert Thomas, who replaced Fire Chief Phil Dawson in June after Dawson’s resignation.
“I liked his experience,” Lawrence said Friday. “He is also a trainer and educator in fire and EMS service, but his thoughts on the regionalization of the fire departments really drew us.”
Regionalization, Lawrence said, means ensuring that Howland has mutual aid agreements with area fire departments and share equipment, training and manpower whenever needed.
“It is not like we are going to regionalize with one big department,” Lawrence said. “We want to work together [with other towns] to keep costs down. He wants to ensure that all these departments are all working together.”
McNally began work on Tuesday. He could not be reached for comment on Friday. He has 16 years of experience and will continue to work as a firefighter-paramedic in Orono, where he helps train firefighters. He has also worked for LifeFlight.
McNally’s paramedic and training experience fit well with Howland, which has 20 firefighters, and like volunteer departments statewide, has a chronic problem with retaining and training volunteers, Lawrence said.
The 69-year-old Thomas said he supports the hiring of McNally, who will earn $3,800 annually in the position. The Board of Selectmen agreed to waive the town’s stipulation that fire chiefs live within 15 miles of town lines as part of the hiring, Lawrence said. Bradford is about 20 miles from town.
“It’s time to let the younger guys take over,” Thomas said. “He has a lot more experience being a chief than I have. He and I talked things over, and he is pretty much on the same page as I am as far as what we want to do. So it takes a lot of pressure off of me, actually.”
“I think he is going to work out very well,” Thomas added.
Thomas did well in his term as interim chief, which was due to end this month, Lawrence said. Thomas put the department into a countywide mutual-aid network, meaning that Howland firefighters will go to any fire in the county when requested, plus individual aid agreements with Burlington, LaGrange, Lincoln, Lowell and Passadumkeag, he said.
Thomas said he will stay on with the department to help smooth McNally’s transition.