Lincoln Township Fire Chief Brandon Chiarello is taking on a second job.
At this past week’s meeting of the Lincoln Township Board of Trustees, Township Manager Ralph Bansen said the executive committee and trustees have given Chiarello permission to serve as the part-time chief of the Lake Township Fire Department. He’ll serve no more than 15 hours per week, only doing administrative work like scheduling, writing policies, and training.
Bansen said Lincoln Township’s fire services will not suffer.
“We made it perfectly clear his first obligation is here, no ifs, ands, or buts,” Bansen said. “So his first responsibility is here, his first obligation is here.”
Since Chiarello uses a township vehicle, Bansen said Lake Township has agreed to reimburse his mileage to Lincoln Township. The chief will have to track it. Clerk Michael Brown said that’s an important detail.
“It’s great to help, but the taxpayers of Lake Township paid for the vehicle, so we definitely wanted to make sure that Lake Township paid for the service with that,” Brown said.
There’s no estimate for how long Chiarello will serve Lake Township. Bansen said the chief previously did something similar for Benton Harbor.
Lake Township Supervisor Zach Carson tells us Lake is not currently looking for a chief after losing its previous one a while back. He said Lake Township hired Chiarello in February with the understanding he’ll strictly be an administrative chief. However, because the two townships have automatic aid agreements, any fires that either might respond to would likely bring Chiarello to the scene.
Also, Carson says a review done by the two township fire departments last year to determine if they should merge resulted in no agreement. He says they “pulled the plug” on that idea.
