Litrico Out As Eighth Utilities District Fire Chief

The Board of Directors of the Manchester Eighth Utilities District voted 6-1 Monday night not to reappoint Paul Litrico as chief of the largely volunteer fire department, according to the Hartford Courant. 

The vote, which the Courant reported came as more than 30 firefighters from the department flooded the room to throw their support behind Litrico, caps a tumultuous year thus far for the department. In March, , one of the few paid members of the department, and the son of the chief and Assistant Chief Mary Beth Litrico, was arrested outside the department's Main Street fire house and charged with buying heroin while on duty and in uniform; Joseph Litrico has since resigned from the department and the criminal charges against him are still pending. In April, the Manchester Police Department announced that it was involving the disappearance of 26 tickets for a car raffle at $150 apiece. While several weeks ago the district's board of directors also unanimously voted to that tax documents used to calculate volunteer fire fighters eligibility to receive a tax abatement from the town were missing. Both those investigations are still ongoing and the police have not released any details into them. 

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The Eighth Utilities District Manchester Fire Department is a largely volunteer based unit of fire fighters that respond to calls in northern portion of Manchester and are also available for mutual aid calls in other parts of town. Litrico has served as chief of the department for nine years, according to the Courant. His wife, Mary Beth Litrico, serves as one of his assistant chiefs. 

According to the Courant, members of the board of directors initially voted 6-1 not to reappoint Litrico, but then confusion arose once a roll call vote was called for, and the vote was then reversed to 6-1 as board members thought they were voting to affirm their initial vote. Another vote was called, and the outcome was the same 6-1 not to reappoint Litrico as initially. Members of the audience voiced that the removal of Litrico as chief would destroy the department, according to the Courant. 

Eighth Utilities District President Mary O'Marra told Patch Tuesday that following that vote, another vote was taken to appoint Ron Russo as interim chief of the fire department. O'Marra said Russo has served with the department for the past five years, is currently a captain and that the vote to appoint him as interim chief was unanimous. 

O'Marra said the board of directors would meet soon to establish "criteria" for appointing a new permanent chief, which would include input from the fire department and the public, and that Russo is still a candidate for the permanent position as well. 

"This doesn't rule out Ron as a permanent candidate," O'Marra said. "He was willing to step forward on an interim basis to help out the department." 
O'Marra said Russo would appoint his own interim staff in the meantime. 

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