NORTH YARMOUTH — Ricky Plummer, the town’s fire chief since 2012, will resign early next month to head the Old Orchard Beach Fire Department.
Plummer owns a home in Biddeford, but has been renting property in North Yarmouth. He said the new job allows will bring him closer to home, and pays a little more.
“I really hadn’t planned on leaving,” Plummer said last week. “I have really no desire to leave North Yarmouth. It’s just the opportunity came up, (and) we could go back to our house.”
He said he loves his job in North Yarmouth, but “it’s more to do with finances, and retirement at some point. … It was a hard decision.”
“I have a lot of friends here,” Plummer added. “The guys and gals have been great, so it’s hard to leave when you’ve got a good group.”
He was about to put the Biddeford house on the market when the Old Orchard Beach job became available, Plummer said.
His last day will be Sept. 6. Town Manager Rosemary Roy said Aug. 15 that the position has not yet been advertised.
Plummer was hired as the town’s public safety assistant in 2011, following the transition of the town fire company to a fire and rescue department, a change approved that year at Town Meeting. He was promoted to chief the following year.
The 58-year-old, who is married and has four children and three grandchildren, has been a full-time firefighter for nearly 40 years. He was chief of the Marlborough, Massachusetts, Fire Department from April 2010 through August 2011.
He then saw an ad for the North Yarmouth job and was attracted to working in a smaller department.
Plummer previously was fire-rescue chief and public safety and emergency management agency director in Gray (2007-2010), fire-rescue chief and emergency management director in Cocoa, Florida (2005-2007) and in Biddeford (2003-2005), and fire chief and public safety and EMA director in Standish (2001-2003).
In New Hampshire, he was town manager of Milton from 1995-1996 and fire chief in Portsmouth from 1996-2001. He has also served as a forest fire warden and instructor for a firefighter rookie school.
Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.
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Ricky Plummer of Biddeford will resign next month as North Yarmouth fire chief.
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