Rochester and Northfield urge continuation of veteran fire chiefs' service through home-rule bills

Officials from two Massachusetts towns asked the Joint Committee on Public Service to approve home-rule petitions that would allow long-serving fire chiefs to continue in office past the standard retirement age.

Representative Silva appeared for the town of Rochester to support House Bill 4235, which would raise the retirement age for Fire Chief Scott Weigel from 67 to 70. Silva told the committee Weigel has nearly 50 years of service, is Rochester’s only full-time firefighter, manages roughly 80 call staff and paramedics and oversees 24/7 emergency coverage. The representative said local town meeting approved the petition and urged a favorable committee recommendation.

Abi (Abigail) Jake, chair of the Northfield select board, testified virtually in favor of House Bill 4236 to continue the employment of Northfield Fire Chief Floyd “Skip” Donnell. Jake said Skip has been active in recent building-committee work on a fire-only facility, helped the town recruit six new firefighters (some from a junior-firefighter program), and committed to an organizational review. Because a community-compact grant was not available, Northfield is funding an organizational review from reserve funds so the work can be completed this year; Jake said Skip would then plan to retire in August 2026.

Both presenters argued that—especially in smaller or mostly-volunteer departments—continuity of leadership supports training, capital projects and deployment of federal ARPA funds. House Bill 4235 references last session’s change under chapter 91 of the acts of 2024 that set a retirement age at 67; the Rochester petition would raise the limit to 70 for Chief Weigel.

Committee members asked routine questions and accepted the testimony; no committee vote was taken on either home-rule petition during the hearing.