Westfield Fire District Election Results

Ross Andrew was re-elected Fire Commissioner last night, along with Ted Bysiewicz and George King. Andrew has served the Westfield Fire District for decades, he was opposed by Daniel Barone, a young firefighter. The vote was 48 for Andrew and 38 for Barone.

The 51st annual meeting started about 20 minutes late, waiting until a crew of volunteers returned from a call on I91. The community room of the fire station was packed with residents, about half were volunteer firefighters and the other half were residents grateful for the excellent service in the district. ID was checked at the door, only resident who are registered to vote were allowed to cast a ballot.

As incumbent Commissioner, Andrew opened the meeting, starting with a report of the WFD activities. WFD responded to 1064 incidents in 2012, a drop of 13% compared to the previous year. Andrew subdivided the various responses: 4% of the responses were to fires, 7% were to auto accidents, and 8% were mutual aid responses in which the WFD assisted a nearby fire district.

The vice-chair of the Commission led the balloting for Commissioner. Each voter was given a folded piece of paper on which to cast a vote, these were collected in one of the station's cook pots.

After the ballots were counted, Andrew returned to the table, thanked those who had voted for him, and proceded with the remainder of the annual meeting. He explained that the station needed a new truck to replace a 23 year old rescue truck and a 26 year old pumper. The Commissioners asked those assembled to vote on whether they should proceed in that direction by investigating bonding or financing $1.5M.

This vote was done in a similar manner, the vote was 78 yes and 10 no.