By Jason Schreiber
The Union Leader
EPPING, N.H. — The town got a full-time fire chief last night, but lost its emergency management director.
Selectmen voted to hire Jeff LeDuc to fill a new full-time chief’s position approved by voters in March.
LeDuc has served as part-time fire chief since Jan. 1, but voters agreed to make the position full-time as of July 1 and pay $47,380 to cover the salary for six months of this year.
After meeting behind closed doors to discuss the hiring last night, selectmen voted to appoint LeDuc, a fire investigator and inspector for the Hampton Fire Department. He has worked in the emergency medical service field since 1989. He was a call firefighter in Epping in 1994 and became a full-time firefighter/paramedic in Hampton in 1998.
With the town continuing to grow, LeDuc has insisted that the chief’s position needed to be full time to provide additional coverage and handle more administrative responsibilities.
LeDuc, who oversees three full-time firefighter/emergency medical technicians and the town’s call firefighters, said he’s looking forward to continuing his work as chief.
His appointment came as Tim Flowers, the town’s emergency management director, submitted his letter of resignation.
Flowers was named director last April and helped the town through the February windstorm and last month’s flooding.
Karen Falcone, chairman of the board of selectmen, said the resignation came as a surprise. She said he resigned to pursue other opportunities.
“He has done a wonderful, wonderful job for us,” she said.
LeDuc will assume the responsibilities of emergency management director until selectmen decide what to do with the position.
Flowers took over the job after Skip Galvin, the town’s former part-time fire chief, insisted that it was too difficult for the chief to also wear the emergency management director’s hat.
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