Grafton Fire Department officials request Cournoyer as interim chief

The Grafton Fire Department’s current fire chief and captains, with the backing of fire staff, are calling for Fire Captain Paul Cournoyer to be named interim chief. 

The move comes nearly a month after the Select Board hit a reset on the search to replace retiring Chief Mickey Gauthier after their top choice, Glastonbury Fire Chief Michael Thurz, refused the town’s offer of employment. A new search committee will be appointed.

Gauthier is still set to retire at the end of the year. He and the town’s three fire captains — Cournoyer, Rick Allain, and Robert Egan — recommended that the department be run by an interim chief chosen from in-house. Cournoyer was specifically recommended because he works in town and has administrative experience as director of the Department of Public Works.

“Bringing in an outside person (as interim) and going through a transition, then another transition with a new chief, is very disruptive,” Allain told the Select Board.

Cournoyer added that he was not a candidate to be fire chief during the last search and he has no intention of applying for the full-time job.

Several firefighters from the town’s on-call department were in the audience to support the choice.

“We’d rather see the process slow down so we can get a quality person,” Cournoyer said.

The group recommended that a new chief be hired by June 2022, before the start of Fiscal Year 2023 in July.

Town Administrator Evan Brassard said he has met with Cournoyer to discuss the possible change.

The Select Board did not take a vote on the matter.

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