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Date: 12/30/2020
SOUTHWICK – At the Southwick Select Board’s Dec. 28 meeting, the board approved a lead dispatcher and agreed to sell a surplus fire truck and dive truck along with its routine business for the meeting.
For the meeting’s first order of business, the board unanimously approved a motion to name Bob Eak the town’s lead dispatcher and Police Chief Kevin Bishop explained the process for funding the position.
“It started two years ago when we tried to get support for a full-time supervisor and the funding just wasn’t available at that time. The board was kind enough to give us some overtime to meet those needs, with that money we decided to go with a lead dispatcher,” he said.
Bishop added that along with working as the lead dispatcher, Eak would split duties and work as a dispatcher as well.
“It’s not a part time position, he’s going to be doing both dispatch duties while also serving the lead dispatcher position. I we put together a good plan for the future of our dispatch center and I think he’s the best candidate for this position,” he said.
Southwick Fire Chief Russ Anderson said that Eak would be the best person for the job after his work as a liaison with the dispatch center.
“We went back to the drawing board over the last year, maybe year and a half, and Bob Eak acted as a liaison with other duties that could be tagged here or there. I want to support that Bob has done an excellent job bringing topics back and forth. I think Bob is an excellent choice, I think it’s a natural fit and will add another dimension to the dispatch we know we need,” he said.
As the meeting’s second order of business Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart said the town was required to repurpose or sell a fire truck and former dive truck for the future.
“Those are old surplus items and the old fire rescue is going to be repurposed into a multi-department dive vehicle, and we have already sold the old fire ladder truck, and now this engine is older one we need to sell too. At some point we are going to do a strip of sale and we need to remove those vehicles from the police and fire station bays,” he said.
Ultimately, the board unanimously approved the repurposing and sale of the vehicles with little discussion.
The board also unanimously approved a motion to make Darcy Rock the new manager at American Legion Post 338.
The Southwick Select Board next meets on Jan. 4.