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Police, Fire, and DPW heads to retire this year

Date: 3/26/2015

LONGMEADOW – One door will close and another will open for the department heads of Police, Fire, and the Department of Public Works (DPW), who are all slated to retire this year.

“There really is no replacing the level of knowledge, experience, and commitment that is leaving when those three men end their careers in Longmeadow,” Town Manager Stephen Crane said.

Each department’s situation will be unique in regards to the search to find successors for each position, he added.

“In the case of the Fire Department, we have retained a search firm [Municipal Resources Incorporated (MRI)] to help us evaluate candidates,” he added. “We chose them because they’ve done a lot of fire chief searches and they also worked with the town during our surrounding community process with MGM and so they got to know our operations at very detailed level through that process.”

Crane said there have been discussions to utilize MRI’s services for the search for the Police Department as well. Currently the town is also working on developing a timeline for advertising the positions and hosting interviews.

“I’m also reviewing other options we may have, such as people who are already in the departments who could serve on an interim basis,” he added.

Fire Chief Eric Madison told Reminder Publications he has been head of the Fire Department for about 15 years and began working in the department in July 1986. May 22 will be his last day as fire chief.

“It’s been a fantastic experience,” Madison said. “It has afforded me opportunities that just don’t come to the normal person. For example, I currently sit, and will have to resign my position, on the Board of Fire Prevention Regulations as a chief. That’s the board that [decides] the fire code in Massachusetts. I was appointed by [former] Gov. Deval Patrick to that committee.”

Madison said before he became involved with firefighting he was pursuing a career in law enforcement.

“It’s an interesting story,” he added. “I actually started as an on-call firefighter [in Monson]. I was 17 years old in this business if you will. I very much enjoyed the experience being a call firefighter, but I didn’t see a career in that.”

 Madison said he worked as a part-time officer in Monson and Hampden and as a dispatcher in Hampden when he was a young adult.

“While I was working [in Hampden] one of my co-workers, an officer I worked with, spotted the ad for Longmeadow Fire Department,” he added. “That was in the winter of months of 1985 or 1986. The long story short is I took the exam they offered and was called for a couple different interviews and the next thing I knew, I was being offered a position in Longmeadow.”  

It was at this point that Madison decided to pursue a career in firefighting after words of encouragement from then Monson Police Chief Bill Picking.

“I asked him what he would do and he gave me an interesting response and encouraged me to pursue a career in firefighting, which is interesting coming from a police chief,” Madison. “I did a lot of soul searching and I really felt that my first love was in firefighting.”

Madison said he would miss the Fire Department when he retires as well as residents.

“We have a fantastic group of firefighters here in Longmeadow who, quite frankly, have made me look really good as chief for the last 15 years,” he added. “First and foremost, I’m going to miss them. I’m going to miss their professionalism and their camaraderie , but I’m also going to miss an awful lot of the residents. There’s a lot of great people in this community and I’m going to miss working for them and with them.”

Police Chief Robert Siano said became part of the Longmeadow Police Department in Jan. 27, 1975. He has been police chief for the last six years. Siano’s last day in the department will be June 30.

“I’ll miss the guys; I’ll miss the people,” he added. “It’s a great group of people to work with. The camaraderie  is just wonderful being cop and being a firefighter.”

From 1970 to 1974 Siano worked as a call firefighter for the town. In total, he has worked for the town for almost 45 years.

 “Some police and fire departments don’t get along with one another and I don’t know why because we’re both in public safety, but here in Longmeadow we both know we have a job to do and we do it to the best of our abilities,” Siano said. “We have a great working relationship.”

Siano shared some words of advice for his successor – “Listen to the guys and really think things out before you make quick decisions.”

DPW Director Michael Wrabel said he has been in his position for 10 years. He will be retiring in July.

Wrabel said he will residents and DPW employees, but also being part of a new chapter in the DPW’s history.

“It’s been a long time coming for the start of a new DPW facility and I will miss being part of that activity because it’s only a once in a lifetime situation where we can start off with a new site and facility for the employees that work here,” he added.

Wrabel also shared a word of advice to his successor – “Listen.”

“God gave you one mouth and two ears so you should spend twice as much time listening as you do speaking,” he added. “[Listen to] residents, employees, [and] Selectmen. This is really a gorgeous community.”