Edgecomb selectmen and fire officials Monday night agreed to new methods for the fire department to report its service calls and finances to the town.

The department will now give selectmen detailed, written monthly reports. Monday’s largely amicable discussion appeared to resolve the issues Selectmen’s Chairman John Johnson and Fire Chief Roy Potter argued over earlier this month.

To address the concerns, Selectman Jack Sarmanian, the board’s liaison to the fire department, had met with Potter and Larry Omland, who serves as the town’s EMA director and as the department’s assistant chief of administration.

"I can say unequivocally that they have worked very hard," Sarmanian said Monday of the fire officials’ efforts on the matter.

Sarmanian gave the rest of the board a memo outlining the plans, along with the first reports to the board, covering the month of October. A chart listed 32 categories of calls for service, among them traffic hazards, mutual aid, auto accidents, and furnace problems. Several types of fire calls are delineated on the new form, including chimney fires; open burning with and without a permit; fire alarms; brush, grass and rubbish fires; and residential and commercial structure fires.

Johnson was pleased with the report’s detail, which, he said, will help show the town all the services the department provides.

"I’m surprised at how many calls you’ve had," he said.

The October report, which the board received Monday, listed a motor vehicle accident with property damage, a motor vehicle fire, a call to assist emergency medical services, and one call classified as "investigation."

The report also showed the calls for each month beginning last January. Through the end of October, the department received a total of 106 calls for service, including 25 motor vehicle accidents with property damage, 45 calls to assist with emergency medical services, and four mutual aid calls. There were no calls for service for structure fires in town, according to the report.

In addition to the chart of service calls, the report includes a separate sheet listing the number of volunteers. As of October 31, the department had 13 "active" firefighters, one member of the department on medical leave, and four others described as "inactive—fire support."

The report mentions a spaghetti fund-raiser, held October 24, and the department’s ongoing work to insulate the engine bay’s ceiling.

The report also notes training activities. Johnson asked for future reports to be more specific in that area, however.

"If we could expand that, not that I’m trying to make more work for you, but I think it’s a good thing for people to know what’s going on in town, p.r. [public relations]-wise," Johnson said. "It’s certainly a good step in the right direction," he said of the report.

"That’s not a problem," Omland responded to Johnson’s request. "We could do that."

Selectman Stuart Smith had reservations about the level of detail the department will be expected to provide. "I’m just concerned," he said. "I don’t want to start micromanaging the fire department."

But Johnson said that was not his intent. "I’m looking you both in the eye," he said to Potter and Omland. "I’m not going to micromanage you. I wouldn’t know how to micromanage you."

Fire officials and selectmen also made plans to post the monthly reports on the department’s page of the town’s website, www.edgecomb.org.

Sarmanian’s memo noted that the department’s "accumulated expense budget" would be submitted to the board every month.

At one point in Monday’s discussion, Johnson brought up an issue Potter had previously raised - over bills the chief said the town had not paid. (Potter later said bill payments were up-to-date.)

"You owe me an apology, really," he told Potter. "Everything was up-to-date, everything was paid."

Johnson received no apology, but Omland did provide an explanation. "Roy had an envelope full of bills that didn’t get into a warrant." Potter had left the envelope at the town office, but not in a location specifically for unpaid bills, according to Omland.

"You show me where you want me to put them, and I will put them there," Potter told the board. "I think it’s just a huge breakdown in communication, and hopefully we can move forward and move beyond that," he added.

In another matter, Johnson suggested that on future town meeting warrants, the fire department’s budget could be broken into a few line items, rather than the current, lump sum warrant article. Johnson emphasized that he was not taking issue with Potter’s spending decisions. He just didn’t understand why the department gets to shift spending from one item to another.

"The way it is now, it’s a free-for-all, which is all right, because it’s you. But business-wise, you would-n’t run a business that way," Johnson said.

Selectmen discussed possibly moving salaries from the fire department warrant article into a warrant article containing salaries for other town employees.

In other business Monday, Sarmanian reported on the building committee’s latest efforts to plan for a new fire station. While still awaiting word on federal stimulus funds, the committee plans to study the designs of other area fire stations. The committee would like to hold a public forum in March 2010, and vote on the project at the May 2011 town meeting, Sarmanian said.

Selectmen approved a switch in the positions held by Marian Anderson and Geoff Smith. Anderson will go from being the code enforcement officer and licensed plumbing inspector to being the deputy for both those positions, while Smith will move from the deputy positions to being the CEO and LPI.

After becoming Richmond’s town manager, Anderson felt she did not have enough time to give to the CEO and LPI positions, Smith explained.

Also Monday, selectmen agreed to write a letter to the state fire marshal’s office, requesting a new inspection of a restaurant owned by developer Roger Bintliff. Sarmanian told the board that, according to the fire marshal’s office, the last inspection of the property took place in August 2008.