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At
their August 2009 meeting, the council voted to accept a $325,140 Staffing
for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant from the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security that must be matched with $427,393 from
the town. The money will be used to pay the salaries of the new personnel
for five years.
The
town's five annual installments will be $83,466 in fiscal 2009-10,
$112,683 in fiscal 2010-11, $162,533 in fiscal 2011-12, $199,861 in fiscal
2012-13 and $241,295 in fiscal 2014.
The town's first payment for this fiscal year will come from the $180,000
left unspent in the 2008-09 fiscal year budget.
The town's share in other years includes using current annual payments of
$49,300 for an aerial platform fire truck and $63,300 for building the
fire station on Cherry Street. The fire truck debt will be paid off by the
end of 2010 and the fire station debt is paid off.
Also, $71,500 to $78,800 will be available with the retirement of
Wilkesboro Fire Inspector Bud Molnar, who plans to step down in the near
future. The full-time firefighters would assume the fire inspection
duties. Also, available will be $25,000 to $30,000 now going annually to the
firemen's pension fund after the fund becomes self supporting in about two
years.
Sudia is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., but has lived in Fayetteville for 37
years, moving to North Carolina when he was 14. He has been the lead fire
inspector and fire educator for the Town of Spring Lake for the past 5-1/2
years and has a total of 35 years of experience in the fire service.
Before accepting the job at Spring Lake, he served as chief of the
Whiteville and Hope Mills fire departments, which have a mixture of
volunteer and paid firemen. He was the first emergency services director
for Harnett County. Sudia has certification as a Fire Instructor II (live
burn instructor), Fire Inspector III, Fire and Life Safety Educator III,
and EMT-I. His starting salary will be $49,000.
Sudia and his wife, Justine, have a son, Frankie, age 13. He also has a
19-year-old stepson, Neil, a 22-year-old stepdaughter, Savanna, and a
24-year-old stepdaughter, Samantha. Sudia added that the family includes a
3½ year-old black Lab, "Lady."
The new chief is no stranger to Wilkes. "My son and I love to fish
for trout. We are frequent visitors to Stone Mountain State Park, so I
jumped all over the application when I saw it," he said. "On a
Saturday or Sunday, you're liable to find us waist deep in a stream up
here."
Sudia said that he plans to be on the job here on Monday, Feb. 22. He'll
move his family to Wilkes as soon as they sell their house in Fayetteville
and purchase a house here.
Keith Reid is the current Wilkesboro fire chief. Sudia said he will ask
Reid to be one of two assistant chiefs. Fletcher Reeves is the other
assistant. Reid currently receives approximately $4,000 annually as chief.
"I'm looking forward to working with our new chief," said Reid,
who met with Sudia on Friday. "This is a good change for the town.
We're moving in the right direction.
"The transition will take some time, but it will all work out. Change
takes time."
Sudia said, "I was interested in this job because I think that the
development of a new system is appealing. We're building upon the
foundation of a great system, and there is a wonderful opportunity for
growth. This is an exciting opportunity. "We'll have a building
process here, and we'll take things one step at a time. The department
will have a new dimension and new goals. We'll work collectively toward
those goals."
Sudia said he expects the command structure of officers to be,
"somewhat similar to what is now in place. I'd say we'll have two
assistant chiefs, two captains and two lieutenants. I'll be talking with
everyone here but I hope they will stay in their positions."
Noland said he was, "glad to have the selection process over. It's
great to find such a qualified person to be our chief.
"First of all, Lee has an in-depth knowledge of the fire inspection
process. He's also a certified fire service instructor, so that will help
with training. He also has experience as a live burn instructor. "Lee
will have to develop policy and procedure quickly as we will be hiring
three new firemen. That's one of the first tasks he'll be charged with
here." The town waited until the new chief was on the job to
start the selection process for the three full-time firemen.
On the selection of firemen, Sudia said, "I will be looking for
firemen who are dedicated and open-minded. They will need the ability to
learn and the willingness to serve the people."
Noland added, "I would hope we could hire someone from within our
department, but they will have to be strong engineers and firemen. Just
because they are with the department doesn't give them a free pass. We'll
hire the best people who fit in with the Town of Wilkesboro.
Noland said that he has over 30 applicants for the three positions,
"and all are very well qualified so we won't have any problem hiring
good personnel." The town manager said that he also received over 30
applications for the position as chief. He said, "It was a very tough
process as we had some strong applicants." Sudia "had all the
qualities to do the job, and he fit the needs of the town," said
Noland.
As a part of the selection process, five finalists took part on an
"assessment center" in Wilkesboro. A 12-member panel that
included three fire chiefs and two assistant chiefs from around the state,
a county manager, three human resources directors, two town managers and
others interviewed the candidates and conducted scenarios that included
role playing and seeing how the candidates handled discipline of firemen.
North Wilkesboro Town Manager Hank Perkins and Noland were the only Wilkes
people on the panel. |
