By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Goffstown officials are considering hiring an interim fire chief to replace outgoing Chief Frank Carpentino, and one selectman has expressed disappointment in the retiring chief’s tenure.

“He wasn’t a good chief,” said Selectman Bruce Hunter. “For some reason the department had problems while he was chief, and a lot of people left our call force under him. There should have been an exit interview with people to find out why so many left.”

Carpentino announced his retirement to selectmen on Oct. 23.

The chief will work through the end of the year, and at the end he will be paid accrued sick and vacation time and salary through the end of January, Hunter said.

Carpentino, 47, is also eligible to enter the state firefighter retirement program, said selectman Nick Campasano, the selectmen’s representative to the fire department.

The chief came to the Goffstown Fire Department in August 2003 as former chief of the Hudson Fire Department. During Carpentino’s 29 years in firefighting, he had also served as a Fire Protection Specialist with the U.S. Air Force and as assistant fire chief for the city of Rochester.

Carpentino’s most controversial moment in Goffstown came last November, when selectmen voted to eliminate his position and consolidate the town’s fire, police and EMS departments under the umbrella of a public safety department.

A Hillsborough County Superior Court judge later ruled that voters had to approve such a move, and Town Meeting voters restored Carpentino to the position of fire chief in March of this year.

Carpentino gave selectmen no reason for his retirement to selectmen, but Deputy Chief Mark Hurley said earlier that Carpentino may have been demoralized by actions of the board of selectmen, including cutting approximately $500,000 of the fire departments’ planned capital improvement projects out of the budget this year.

Selectmen discussed the idea of how to best replace Carpentino at their meeting of Monday, Oct. 30. Most of the conversation centered on hiring an interim chief who would conduct an assessment of the fire department and give selectmen a report at the end of his time there.

“If you get an interim chief, they have no stake and they wouldn’t be making recommendations to build their own department. My opinion is, you would get a very objective assessment,” Campasano said.

Selectmen also considered a number of requirements and qualifications for the new fire chief, including residency, certification, education and handling media relations.

Although selectmen took no vote on the issue at the meeting, most agreed to consider hiring an interim chief to serve for six months.

Selectmen’s Chairman Barbara Griffin asked Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux to provide a recommendation from Municipal Resources Inc., as well as to detail the procedures in hiring former interim fire chief Paul Nault.