Hatfield Hires First Full-Time Firefighter, Debates School Mask Mandate

HATFIELD — August 17, 2021 — Hatfield Select Board welcomes its first full-time firefighter while clashing with the Board of Health over a school mask mandate. Chair Luke Longstreeth presided over the August 17 meeting, where Fire Chief Bob Flaherty introduced Richard "Ricky" Siliberto as the department's first full-time firefighter-EMT, paid through ambulance receipts and already fully apparatus-certified after nine days. The board unanimously declared surplus eight turnout coats, four turnout pants, and four pairs of boots — all out of federal compliance — for donation to Beirut, and approved a paramedic pay rate of $24.07 per hour effective July 1. Member Edmund Jaworski pressed Board of Health members on the basis for a school mask mandate issued before the school committee had voted, calling for reinstatement of former COVID coordinator Carrie and demanding metrics-based decision-making. Fire Chief Flaherty, serving as Emergency Management Director, noted Hatfield had recorded just three COVID cases in the past 65 days, arguing that figure did not warrant a municipal building mandate.