SHUTESBURY — The town’s fire chief feels the Selectboard has shown “absolutely no respect” to him and his dedication to the town, according to the resignation letter Walter Tibbetts penned earlier this week, which was released by the fire department late Friday night.
Tibbetts told the Selectboard in a June 19 letter he was going to retire as chief of the town’s fire department following a breakdown in months of attempted negotiations. The salary raise the town offered him, was a “pittance of an increase in pay,” he said in the letter. He was offered a $5,000 raise instead of his requested $10,000 bump to his most recent roughly $55,400 contract.
“I cannot continue to respect and work for an entity that has no respect for me,” Tibbetts said in the letter.
He explained as a third-generation firefighter for the Shutesbury Fire Department, this is perhaps the “most difficult letter that I have ever had to write.”
“Although my dedication to this job and more importantly, to this community, has been unwavering, the issues before me now are testing me to the very heart of my soul,” Tibbetts said. Continuing, he called some of the negotiation tactics not only “personally insulting, but have made me question what it is I am loyal to.”
The letter came following negotiations and the announcement by the town’s 10 firefighters that they will resign if the chief is not offered a fair contract.
His resignation, and that of his fellow firefighters — which threatens to potentially upend the entire department — may still be up in the air.
The town has a meeting coming up, on June 26, where this and other issues are expected to be discussed. As things are currently, Tibbetts’ announced retirement would begin July 31.
Read the full resignation letter here: bit.ly/2Mfq2vD