By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

The town's fire department has been the topic of heated debate lately, and voters will face several decisions regarding the department at the ballot box on March 14.

Selectmen briefly reviewed several warrant articles relating to the fire department at a meeting Monday, Jan. 9.

Selectmen submitted an article to combine the town's fire, police and support services into a single public safety department.

Police Chief Michael French, now serving as the interim public safety director, presented selectmen with an extensive study into the idea on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Under the structure outlined in French's report, a director of public safety would oversee fire, police and support services.

An operations chief (fire), a director of operations for the police department and a director of support services would all report directly to the director of public safety.

Selectmen brought that blueprint one step closer to reality at their Jan. 9 meeting by naming Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hurley as the town's fire chief of operations.

Former Fire Chief Frank Carpentino has already been dismissed to make way for the new structure. Carpentino said Selectman Robert Wheeler told him on Nov. 7 of his pending dismissal, which became effective Jan. 1.

A petitioned warrant article discussed at the Jan. 9 meeting calls for Carpentino's reinstatement as fire chief.

Another petitioned article asks that the town's fire chief and police chief be recognized as two distinct positions.

This would directly counteract selectmen's efforts to put a single individual in charge of all public safety services.

Another petitioned article calls for the hiring of 18 fulltime fire/EMT personnel, to add to the town's existing firefighting force.

Fire Lt. Bill Connor said this article was submitted by the firefighters union, the Professional Firefighters of Goffstown, in connection with a private citizens ' group.

The petition for this article garnered more than 70 signatures, said Connor, who is also the president of the firefighters' union.

"With all the turmoil (the proposed police/fire merger) has created, the selectmen have lost sight of the fact that the fire department needs firefighters," Connor said.

The addition of 18 firefighter/EMTs will allow for around-theclock coverage, Connor said.

Currently, the town's 10 fulltime firefighters work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Any calls beyond those hours are handled by the town's on-call staff, Connor said. While the controversy swells around the proposed merger of fire, police and EMT services, the official in charge of studying the matter said he favors a partial integration, rather than an instantaneous combination of all departments.

"You're always going to need a core group of fire, police, and EMS people," French said, speaking in his role as interim public safety director.

A merger of police, fire and support services will work best through an integration, rather than an outright merger, of the departments, French said.

He said he has since discussed the idea with the town's police and fire departments individually, and personnel in both departments have expressed similar opinions.

"They want to know more details, but right now they're nervous about change," French said.

French said he understands the department members' concerns, as the idea of merging the departments is still a new one.

"This is different from what they're accustomed to, so of course they're wondering how different it's going to be," French said.

In the report he gave the board of selectmen, French outlined the three most common models of a public safety department:

• Administrative integration, in which the fire and police departments are organized under a single director with no cross training.

• Partial integration, with varying levels of cross training and shared supervision. Under some models, functions such as dispatching, first-responding and purchasing are combined. Under other models, police officers are cross-trained as firefighters to supplement a scaledback fire department.

• Full integration, in which employees are fully cross-trained to rotate between the role of a police officer and a firefighter/ EMT, is the final option discussed.

According to French's report, "While on police patrol, officers carry their firefighting equipment with them in the patrol car and respond to all fire and EMS incidents."

French's plan does not call for an immediate merger of the town's safety departments. Rather, the integrations of 2006 will be almost exclusively administrative, while operational crossover will occur in later phases, he said.

Although the town is a long way from having integrated emergency services, French said police officers already have the training and equipment to serve as first-responders to a medical emergency.

For example, French said all the town's patrol cars are equipped with automatic external defibrillators. This training and equipment proved crucial when an officer with a defibrillator in his vehicle responded to a call of a man suffering cardiac arrest on the east side of town, and was able to handle the situation until an ambulance arrived.

However, French said there are some instances when only one form of response will suffice.

"If you have a fire at your house, you're going to need a fire truck to respond," he said.