With more than 50 applications coming in from across the country, the town is reducing the field of candidates for fire chief before setting up first-round panel interviews this spring.
“We got 50 to 60 applications last month, but a lot of the applicants didn’t match the qualifications we required for the position, so we’re making the pool a lot smaller,” said First Selectman Rudy Marconi.
“We don’t want this to drag on any longer than it has to,” he added. “We hope to have the final candidates brought in front of a panel of fire chiefs from around the state, for peer review, in the next 30 to 45 days. — sooner rather than later.”
Mr. Marconi didn’t have an exact number of how many candidates would make it to this stage of the review process, but said it would be “significantly smaller” than the 50 or 60 who applied.
Lori Scholl, the director of human resources, closed the application period on Feb. 5 and said the new chief would be hired by “April or May at the earliest.”
One of the requirements for any candidate is living, or the willingness to live, in a town that touches Ridgefield — Danbury, Wilton, Redding, Lewisboro, or North Salem, Mr. Marconi said.
“Live, move or relocate to the area — that’s one of the basic requirements,” he said. “Some of the applicants thought that they could commute from another town in the state.”
A second-round interview will be conducted by a group of town officials.
A candidate is selected after this step and brought before the Board of Selectmen.
Ms. Scholl said that this penultimate step would take place in the spring.
The final part of the process is the physical and background check.