After one year of weighing options, the Fayetteville Fire Department has made the change to have a full-time, paid career chief position rather than a volunteer chief, becoming the third department in Onondaga County to do so.

“The village board makes an annual appointment of the fire chief each year. We’ve been noticing there are less and less people willing to serve as fire chief because it is a job with a lot of responsibilities,” said Fayetteville Mayor Mark Olson.

Last week, the village board voted to create the full-time fire department chief position with an annual salary of $65,000. For this year’s village budget, there was a five percent reduction in some departments that allowed for this position to be created, said Olson.

Currently, the Fayetteville Fire Department is considered a combined department, being made up of both career and volunteer firefighters. There are 12 full-time career firefighters, six part-time firefighters and more than 70 volunteer firefighters.

The benefits of having a full-time chief position, Olson said, is to ensure the chief will be available to oversee a firefighter staff of about 100, manage an annual budget that is nearly $2.4 million and organize the outreach and service programs the fire department offers to citizens.

“That’s a lot of work to ask a volunteer to be responsible for,” said Olson. “If this change wasn’t the best option for the department and the citizens in the village, we wouldn’t be making it.”

Paul Hildreth, the current volunteer chief of the department, was appointed to this new position, contingent on his ability to pass a civil service exam.

He did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Fayetteville joins the City of Syracuse Fire Department and DeWitt Fire Department to become the third in Onondaga County to have a full-time paid career chief position.

Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].