by Marty Green ·
Friday, May 10, 2024
By a unanimous vote of the Select Board this week, the town’s Fire Department and the Ambulance Service were merged into a new entity, the Harvard Fire EMS Department. Rick Sicard, the current fire chief, was named its director.
In uniting the two departments, the Select Board was following the recommendations of the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston. In an interim report last month, the center had praise for both departments but stated, “Combined Fire and EMS services are the norm across the country.”
After discussing the merger last week, the Select Board had delayed a vote to give residents an opportunity to weigh in on the matter. Select Board Chair Rich Maiore said the board had received just one letter, and it was in support of the proposal.
Select Board member Charles Oliver said his only question about the merger related to leveling the pay for two services. He agreed it was only fair to do so, but he wondered, “Can that fit into our budget? Both for the rest of this fiscal year … and then also for the next fiscal year that we’ve already voted for.”
Jason Cotting, the current co-director of the Ambulance Services, responded, “I believe that we have sufficient unspent funds from the current fiscal year.”
With that reassurance, the board voted to approve the merger and then, in a separate motion, to appoint Sicard director.