Pepperell Selectmen Interview Three Fire Chief Finalists, Enter Executive Session

PEPPERELL -- May 15, 2019, Pepperell selectmen interviewed three fire chief finalists Wednesday before voting 3-0 to close the meeting in executive session. The three candidates were Bill Greathead, a shift captain with the Duxbury Fire Department who oversees a department with a budget exceeding $3 million and helped guide that town through a regional dispatch consolidation; an internal candidate identified as Mike, an 18-year Pepperell veteran and current department captain who also works full-time as a firefighter-EMT in Acton; and Brian, a former assistant chief in Merrimack, New Hampshire, now working as a risk and emergency manager at Fitchburg State University, who already lives within the town's 15-mile proximity requirement in Townsend. All three candidates said they would retain the department's two deputy chiefs and would respond to fire calls rather than serve as a desk-only chief. The board, chaired by Chairman Faralito and including members Greathead and Scarsdale, opened with a moment of silence for Gary Jaguar, a former Pepperell selectman, firefighter, and part-time police officer. Town Administrator Andrew McClain said he had withheld assessment center results from candidates until after the interview round was complete.