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Bethel Volunteer Fire District board confirms leadership restructure, changes holiday pay
Summary
The Bethel Volunteer Fire Department Tax District Advisory Board unanimously approved Phase III leadership restructuring, narrowed holiday-pay eligibility to hourly employees, directed meeting-posting at Station #1, and scheduled budget workshops for Feb. 9 and 11 while deferring detailed budget review.
The Bethel Volunteer Fire Department Tax District Advisory Board met Feb. 4 at Bethel Fire Station #1 in Clover and unanimously approved a set of administrative changes, including formal confirmation of a Phase III leadership restructuring and a narrow change to the department’s holiday-pay policy.
At the meeting’s outset Charles Parmenter called the session to order and the board recorded attendance by Parmenter, Ralph Merchant, Joseph Costello and Walt Wilkes. The board approved workshop minutes from Jan. 21, 27 and 28 and the Jan. 22 meeting minutes; it appended a note that all figures shown for the 2026/2027 budget in those minutes are estimates only and will be finalized when the full budget is assembled and voted on by the board before submission to the County.
During an executive session the board conferred with county representatives David Garner, Matthew Davis and Holly Baver about an employment matter and discussed Phase III of the department’s restructuring, focusing on establishing leadership posts for a captain and lieutenants. After returning to open session, the board voted to move forward with that Phase III restructuring.
On policy, the board approved a motion amending the Holiday Pay policy so that eligibility applies to “all hourly paid staff” rather than the broader label previously used in the policy text. The board also approved a procedural motion that future physical postings of meeting notices be made only at Station #1, noting Stations #2 and #3 are not Tax Board properties.
The board deferred a detailed review of the 2026/2027 budget — including updates to FY2027 costs and anomalies — to a later meeting and instead scheduled two public budget workshop sessions for Feb. 9 and Feb. 11 at 6:00 p.m. at Station #1 to complete that work.
All motions recorded in the minutes were seconded as noted and passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The board’s next steps are to conduct the scheduled workshops and assemble the full 2026/2027 budget for review and a formal vote.
