WEST BATH

The West Bath Fire Department has a new fire chief, and a new way of selecting one.

Chosen from a pool of 15 applicants, Greg Payson of Topsham was hired to take the reins from retiring Fire Chief Chet Swain Jr., who served the department for 50 years, the last 12 as chief.

Payson is the first West Bath fire chief ever recruited by selectmen.

The process used to be that selectmen endorsed the nominee chosen for a threeyear term by Fire Department members. Now, selectmen will advertise and interview for the position.

The new process was set in motion when Swain informed the board he was retiring. A town ordinance enacted at Town Meeting in June stipulates the duties and rules governing the fire department, including rules for how the fire chief is to be appointed, how long a term he or she will serve, and his or her compensation.

“We were looking for a leader that could create a team atmosphere within the department and continue to grow the department not just into an asset for West Bath, but also to the surrounding departments since we share many mutual aid agreements with our surrounding neighbors,” Town Administrator Jonathan Davis said.

Davis said he, selectmen and a member of the Brunswick Fire Department participated in Payson’s recruitment and selection.

While there has been some discontent from within the department about not being able to choose their own leader, officials said the change was meant to find the best candidate.

Davis said hiring a chief should allow the town to have and keep in place a quality leader who can provide continuity and experience.

It was “a fair process,” open to West Bath firefighters, giving the town access to a larger candidate pool to try to find the best person for what is a challenging position with a lot of moving parts, Davis said.

West Bath’s firefighters’ association elected chiefs from 1949 until the station and equipment burned in 1971, according to Swain. Since 1972, the town has owned the station and equipment. The Fire Department’s nomination went to selectmen, who have always appointed that nominee.

The department had good luck with this process, Swain said.

Following its bylaws, the West Bath Fire Department membership still elected a nominee this past June, despite the new ordinance. That nominee was Deputy Chief Jeremie Whorff.

Whorff — who has been with the department almost seven years — said he feels many in the department are disturbed by the decision not to appoint the department’s nominee, which is how it’s always been.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” is his philosophy, he said.

Whorff said he is disappointed he didn’t get the chief position but also “for the members of the department, that they’re unable to elect their own chief and elect the officers that they volunteer their time to work with.”

“These volunteers don’t get paid but a very minimal stipend,” he said, “and in my mind I don’t think it’s a whole lot to ask as long as someone is capable of doing the job, that the association is able to decide the fate of their leader within the department.”

Whorff conceded, “It may be a good thing for everybody to have a new face in there,” and said everyone has the right to prove themselves capable for the position.

“I’m here for the town and the townspeople and I’m here for the long haul,” Whorff said, “so whoever they have in for chief, I’m definitely going to support them until issues arise.”

Paula Nelson, the chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said the town in 2012 also made the road commissioner an appointed rather than election position, which will come into play if it is vacated by the current commissioner. Other town employees are appointed, as well.

The fire department ordinance is something that should have been put in place in the 1970s, Nelson said, and is to bring the fire department in line with other departments in town and current times.

The ordnance language came from Maine Municipal Association and doesn’t stray far from those of neighboring towns.

“It’s not an ‘us against them’ and it’s not a lack of confidence or lack of anything in that fire department or its members,” Nelson said. “I can’t express that enough. We have the utmost confidence in our department and our members and we’re very proud of them.”

And while no one has expressed unhappiness at a board meeting that they hired a chief from outside, Nelson said, “three members of that department expressed they are very happy with the choice that we have made.”

The new chief

Payson, 43, started his firefighting career in 1988 in Pownal, where he grew up.

He was in college at the time and one of his good friends was a firefighter with the Pownal Fire Department.

“He just wouldn’t leave me alone on it,” Payson said, “so I finally joined and once I got into it and started doing the classes, I just fell in love with the job.

“I think it’s the camaraderie that it brings; the daily challenges that you can get yourself into, makes you think on your feet,” Payson said, adding, “I enjoy helping people.”

He’s drawn in particular to the heavy extrication and technical rescue work.

Payson worked in construction through high school and attended Central Maine Community College to study building construction.

He volunteered at Freeport Fire Department while working at the Pownal Fire Station, which he left as a lieutenant. He moved to Topsham in 1993 and joined its volunteer fire department. He was hired full time in 1999 at Bath Fire Department and worked there for a year before he was hired full time at Brunswick Fire Department.

An advanced EMT, Payson served as a lieutenant for Topsham Fire Department a couple years before he was promoted to captain in 2010. He has also worked since 2007 per diem in Scarborough but has now left that position.

Payson said his goal isn’t to go into West Bath Fire Department and start making big changes. Instead he will be evaluating and making sure records are in order and that the department is meeting the state’s annual training requirements.

Payson said he planned to talk with department officers Monday and get a feel for their expectations “and show them we’re a team; we’re a family, and bring that aspect back to the department.”

Payson then planned to meet with the full membership Tuesday.

He realizes this is the first time the department has hired a chief from outside the town which makes it a little difficult, but “I think it’s going to be OK.”

For now and as long as his new job allows, he’s staying with the Topsham Fire Department per diem, but will give up his officership and will remain in his fulltime position in Brunswick.

“There’s going to be a lot of work going into it,” Payson said of his new job. “Any free time that I’m going to have,” will probably be spent at the West Bath fire station, but Payson said he is ready and has the support of his family, his wife and 11-year-old daughter. “It’s a good department down there.”

The part-time chief serves a population of approximately 1,850 people, is paid a $5,000 stipend and also has a probationary period.