Seven vie for Polson fire chief job

Four apply from out-of-state

The Polson city council will make a decision Friday night to offer a job to one of the seven candidates who applied for the job of Polson fire chief, as the city looks to replace Tom Maloney, who started his new job in Snohomish County, Wash. earlier this month.

The city advertised for the position locally starting last month, but the advertisement was picked up by a national Website that specializes in firefighting jobs, resulting in four out-of-state applications, in addition to three in-state.

Applicants include assistant fire chief John Fairchild, who is also a detective for the Polson police department, and applicants from Butte and Missoula, but also from upstate New York, Kansas, Colorado and Idaho, mayor Jules Clavadetscher said.

“We advertised in local media, and also Missoula, but I’ve since learned that the ad was picked up by a Website that caters to the firefighting profession,” he said. “That’s why we got some responses from distant locations.”

The search committee put into place to guide the advertising and selection process will make a recommendation to the city council at a special meeting Friday night at 7 p.m. The committee is made up of councilmen Tom Corse and Tom Jones, and Polson fire district member Fred Nelson.

Clavadetscher said committee members have most likely conducted in-depth interviews with the strongest candidates, and will provide an explanation to the council on their selection, but will not discuss each applicant in detail at the meeting.

“What’s likely to happen is that the board will make its recommendation and tell the council why, and will go into some explanation as to why they made the recommendation,” Clavadetscher said. “But I don’t think the board plans to interview all seven, but will interview a subset of that.”

The salary will be about $36,000 a year, and was based on comparisons of fire chief salaries in similar communities. However, Clavadetscher said side-by-side comparisons are difficult because many cities have the job structured differently than Polson, where the job is a full-time paid position that includes both the city and rural fire district.

“In Belgrade, for example, the fire chief’s job is combined with the county, and pays substantially more, while Hamilton has a volunteer fire chief. Larger cities like Missoula pay a lot more, of course,” Clavadetscher said.

During the annual Polson firemen’s ball, and in interviews prior to his departure, Maloney threw his support behind Fairchild, saying it made sense to stick with a candidate who was already familiar with the organization’s internal processes and culture. If Fairchild were offered the job, he would have to resign his position from the police department, given the on-call requirements and frequent responses inherent to the job.