TURNERS FALLS — Fire Captain Todd Brunelle has been certified to serve as a fire chief in Massachusetts. The state Fire Service Commission certified him Sept. 26.
Brunelle said he does not have any immediate plans to leave his current job, but that the certification adds to his knowledge and may create future opportunities. He added that he does eventually want to pursue a chief position, and would prefer to stay in the Turners Falls Fire Department.
“As opportunities become available within, I’m certainly interested,” Brunelle said.
David Zamojski, chair of the Turners Falls Fire District’s Prudential Committee, said that he does not expect the chief position to open any time soon. “There’s no movement at that rank,” Zamojski said.
Brunelle grew up in Turners Falls, and joined the fire department’s call force in 1997, then joined full-time in 2000, he said. He was on active duty in the U.S. Navy from 1992 to ‘96, and is now in reserve for the Air Force, he said.
For the chief certification, the state commission reviews the applicant’s entire career, including education, training and professional experience, according to a press release from the commission.
The committee for exploring a potential merger of the Gill-Montague and Pioneer Valley Regional School Districts is now expected to have its first meeting in the second week of November, rather than the end of October as previously discussed.
Each of the six towns involved — Gill and Montague of the Gill-Montague district; and Northfield, Bernardston, Warwick and Leyden of the Pioneer district — would have three members on the committee, for a total of 18 members. As of this week, not every town had found three members, and the towns’ necessary legal processes for formally nominating committee members had not all been done, said Gill Selectboard member Greg Snedeker, who is coordinating the first meeting. Snedeker said he may be involved in the committee initially, but is unsure whether he will stay on it for the long term.
It appears to be legal to proceed with fewer than three committee members from each town, town officials from Gill and Montague agreed at a joint meeting in September. But Snedeker said it would be better to give the towns a little extra time to finalize their membership, rather than hold a meeting before the committee is fully formed.
MONTAGUE — Candidates for the vacant wastewater superintendent position are scheduled to be reviewed by a search panel over the next two months. The panel expects to recommend a candidate to the Selectboard by mid-November, Town Administrator Steve Ellis said.
The position has been empty since mid-September, when former Superintendent Bob McDonald left for a similar job in Templeton, explaining that it is closer to where he lives. Meanwhile, Chief Operator Kevin Boissonnaut is now serving as an interim superintendent, and former Superintendent Bob Trombley is temporarily serving as a consulting superintendent.
The search panel includes Wastewater Department employees, Public Works Superintendent Tom Bergeron, Town Accountant Carolyn Olsen, Treasurer Collector Eileen Seymour and Randy Ames, who lives in Montague and owns Ames Electrical Consulting in Deerfield, all according to Ellis.
Job ads have been posted, Ellis said at the Selectboard’s Oct. 7 meeting. Selectboard Chair Rich Kuklewicz said, “I can imagine, if we have the advertisement up, in the next few weeks we’ll start to see things flowing.”
ERVING — Peter Sanders was elected to the Selectboard in a special election Tuesday. Sanders was the only candidate on the ballot. Forty-two people voted: 41 voted for Sanders, and one ballot was left blank, said Administrative Coordinator Bryan Smith.
The Selectboard position was empty since August, when Scott Bastarache resigned, citing a lack of time to commit to the board. He had been on the board since 2016.
An empty position on the Erving Elementary School Committee was also filled in Tuesday’s election. Mark Blatchley won the seat as the only candidate on the ballot. Of the 42 ballots cast Tuesday, 38 were for Blatchely, three were blank, one was for a write-in candidate, Smith said. The School Committee seat was on the ballot in the regular annual election in May, but there were no candidates at the time.