ATHOL – Following a career in the Fire Department that has lasted 30 years, Jeffrey Parker has been named its new chief.

Parker joined the Athol Fire Department as a call firefighter and worked his way up the ranks. On Wednesday, he and Town Manager Shaun Suhoski put their names to a new contract, officially beginning Parker’s tenure as fire chief.

Parker had served as deputy chief until the departure in early December of Chief Joseph Guarnera, who had led the department for six years. Parker took on the responsibilities of acting chief until a permanent chief could be named.

“It feels like a dream come true,” Parker told the Athol Daily News. “It’s something I’ve always wanted. I’m in my 30th year here, so it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”

Parker said he had been thinking about his priorities for the department, should he be tapped as Gaurnera’s replacement.

“I’ve been working through some things and waiting for it to become official,” he said. “I will continue progressing with our training program and working to fill the positions which are currently vacant. It’s been a busy time since I took over as acting chief – it’s budget season and I’ve been looking at capital planning. Now that we’re through some of that, I’m going to start getting down to more of the nitty-gritty stuff.

“I’ll be working with each individual here and figuring out what they feel has gone well here, what hasn’t gone well, and how we can move forward and improve heading into the future.”

Last year, Athol voters narrowly approved a $286,000 Proposition 2 ½ override to hire three new firefighter/EMTs, with a fourth to be hired at nearly $96,000 through the FY25 municipal budget. The positions funded via the override have already been filled. The fourth firefighter has yet to be brought on board, but Parker’s hoping that will change fairly soon.

“We’re in the process,” said Parker. “In fact, I have a candidate coming in next week. We’ve been trying to get a paramedic, which has been very difficult; it’s been very difficult to find someone who’s already been certified as a paramedic. So, we’re going to evaluate the person coming in next week.”

Parker has received extensive training during his three decades on the department.

“I joined when I was 24,” he said. “It was kind of by circumstance. I took the test to work for the Post Office, and it just didn’t work out. So, I took the civil service test and joined the call department in the fall of 1995. Six months later, I was promoted to full-time.”

During that time, he added, “I received my associate degree in fire science from Mt. Wachusett Community College. I’m now just wrapping up my bachelor’s degree [from the University of New Hampshire] in fire service administration. I’ll be done with that this spring.”

“We really had a deep pool of qualified command staff in the department, in our existing staff, from the deputy chief to several of the captains,” said Suhoski. “They all have on-scene experience, years of service, education, training and it was just very fortunate that we have very awesome group of firefighters.”

As a result, said Suhoski, he decided to post the position internally after Guarnera announced his departure. Two panels were set up to interview the finalists for the job. One was what Suhoski referred as a “management panel” made up of himself, Selectboard Chair Stephen Raymond, and Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee Chair Ken Duffy. A department head panel included Police Chief Craig Lundgren, Department of Public Works Director Dick Kilhart, Town Accountant Amy Craven, and Bridge Armentrout, executive assistant to the Selectboard.

“The unanimous consensus of both groups was that the deputy chief would be promoted to chief,” said Suhoski. “It was a unanimous choice, but the other candidate is very well qualified as well. So, we were just in a good position.”

Parker is expected to leave his job as part-time fire chief for Phillipston by the end of September, according to Suhoski.

“We’re going to be in really good hands,” said Suhoski of Parker. “He’s deeply committed to the department; he has been for nearly 30 years. It’s his hometown. It’s something he has aspired to and worked toward.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.