Wellesley to consider retired Weston, Portsmouth fire chiefs for interim job

The Wellesley Select Board at its Tuesday, July 11 meeting is slated to interview two candidates for interim fire chief and then pick one.

The candidates are Todd Germain, former Portsmouth, N.H. chief, and David Soar, who retired as Weston’s chief last year. There’s retirement, and then there’s fire department retirement, as we’ve seen over the years…these officials do tend to return to duty in one capacity or another.

The town of Wellesley has paused its search for a permanent fire chief to replace Rick DeLorie, who retired after 14 years as chief at the start of the year. Nat Brady, a 33-year veteran of the department, has been serving as interim chief.

Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop said during a recent Select Board meeting that the town plans to hire an interim chief for a year. Putting an interim chief in place for that long will give the town an opportunity to “really take a look and audit the department’s policies and procedures and operations and really work to mentor internal candidate,” she said.

Wellesley late last year rejiggered the way it oversees the fire chief.

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