Eric Mathieu named new Grafton Fire Chief

Deputy Chief Eric Mathieu, a 28-year veteran of the Grafton Fire Department, was named Grafton’s next fire chief by the Select Board. He will be Grafton’s first full-time fire chief.

Mathieu, who is also employed full-time as a fire lieutenant in Acton, will take the reins from Interim Fire Chief Paul Cournoyer, who assumed the role after Fire Chief Micky Gauthier retired at the end of 2021. The Select Board and Town Administrator Evan Brassard went into executive session after Mathieu was chosen to work out the contract offer.

It is unlikely that Mathieu will choose the option picked by Glastonbury Chief Michael Thurz, who rejected Grafton’s job offer the day after his October interview. He was all smiles in the hallway outside the Select Board’s meeting room, exchanging handshakes with well-wishers.

Also in the running were Michael Killeen, a full-time fire captain and fire prevention officer for the Grafton Fire Department, and Kevin McDonnell, a fire captain/EMT in Holyoke.

While the board had high praise for the qualifications of all three candidates, the final decision came down to Mathieu and McDonnell. Select Board member Ray Mead, himself a former Grafton deputy fire chief, led the charge for Mathieu even as he praised McDonnell, with whom he found fault due to lack of experience with an on-call department.

Select Board member Mat Often favored McDonnell, who he said had “a more strategic vision for Grafton.” But both Peter Carlson and Doreen DeFazio leaned toward Mathias, with Carlson noted brought the best of both worlds by serving for more than two decades in both Grafton’s on-call department and Acton’s full-time department.

Mathieu has worked on budget matters with Brassard in his current role and, while he has not written grants before, he has begun networking with other departments on the process.

A priority for the department should be recruitment and retention of firefighters, building a camaraderie within the entire fire department, he said.

“I would like to keep the call force active but with the growth of the town, there’s going to be a need for full-time staff,” he added, encouraging gradual growth of staff.

Tthere are two things that make firefighters unhappy: change, and the way things are,” he joked.

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