CANAAN — Eight months after the sudden departure of Fire Chief John Hennessy, town officials have yet to name a permanent replacement.

“The Selectboard is still playing games with the position,” firefighter Sean Saunders said in an interview last week. “There are certain people (in the fire department) that they don’t like. They haven’t given any legitimate reasons (for the delay).”

In an unanimous vote in June, firefighters recommended the board promote Hue Wetherbee, the department’s third-in-command, to the top post.

Traditionally, after the fire department takes its vote, the Selectboard then signs off on the choice to make it official.

But this time around, the town’s governing board has been slow to act. A phone message left at the Selectboard’s office last week wasn’t returned.

For a couple of months after Hennessy left in January, Wetherbee and Rick Colburn, the department’s assistant chief, shared chief duties.

After Colburn moved out of town in late June, Wetherbee was appointed interim chief.

The interim tag has stuck for too long, Wetherbee said in an interview last month.

Town officials are “dragging their feet,” he said. “It’s time they make a decision.”

In a follow-up phone interview on Monday, Wetherbee said he met with the Selectboard last week. The board presented him with a scenario in which he could serve as a part-time chief and hold another undefined role with the town, Wetherbee said.

“I haven’t given them an answer,” he said. “Everything is still in limbo.”

The relationship between the fire department, Town Administrator Chet Hagenbarth, who was hired in February, and the three-member Selectboard is “tense and messy at the moment,” Wetherbee said in the initial interview.

Hennessy, a member of the fire department since 1983, took over the role of chief in March 2022. His hiring marked the first time that Canaan had a full-time fire and emergency medical services chief.

Less than two years into his tenure, Hennessy handed in his resignation in late December without giving an explanation. His Dec. 28, 2023 letter to the Selectboard simply stated that his final day on the job would be Jan. 12.

Hennessy’s departure led to speculation on social media about a possible disagreement between Hennessy and the Selectboard over the handling of a personnel matter. On Dec. 18, a Canaan Ambulance employee got a town ambulance stuck in the mud while allegedly running a personal errand during her shift. It resulted in a $450 towing bill.

Selectboard Chairman Stephen Freese and then-interim Town Administrator Jack Wozmak told the Valley News in February that there was no dispute over the bill, which showed Hennessy’s signature and was accompanied by a note saying “OK to pay.”

The Canaan Ambulance employee offered to reimburse the town for the towing expense, but the Selectboard declined the offer, Freese said. Canaan Ambulance, which has three ambulances and two full-time employees, serves Canaan, Orange and Dorchester.

Along with serving as fire chief and head of the ambulance service, Hennessy, a longtime Canaan resident, was also the town’s emergency management director and building inspector.

When Hennessy resigned as fire chief, he quit the three other jobs as well.

In 2023, the four positions combined paid a salary of about $60,000.

Except for the fire chief’s salaried position, Canaan firefighters perform their duties on a paid-on-call basis.

The sticking point between town officials and the fire department is now over whether to have a full-time or part-time chief.

If it’s a full-time position, Wetherbee could leave his job with the Canaan highway crew and devote all of his energy and attention into running the fire department, firefighters argue.

Speaking about his colleagues, Wetherbee said, “there are truly incredible people in this department; people who I personally have been through a lot with, and if they want me to, I would be more than happy to lead them and be their chief.”

In an interview last month, Hagenbarth, the town administrator, said that it’s not just a matter of the Selectboard appointing a permanent chief.

After Hennessy resigned, the board appointed a new building inspector and ambulance chief — filling two of his four roles. As a result, the current town budget only has money for a part-time fire chief, Hagenbarth said.

If it’s going to be a full-time position, Canaan residents need to weigh in, and that can’t happen until voters go to the polls early next year, he said.

But the stalemate isn’t just about a line in the town budget, Wetherbee said. He views Hagenbarth as an obstacle.

“I’m sure he is very good at his job and is working to improve the town, but he has always seemed standoffish when things are associated with the fire department,” Wetherbee said.

Before getting hired in Canaan, Hagenbarth worked for the town of Killington, Vt., for 11 years, first as its public works director and then as town manager. While Hagenbarth was overseeing Killington’s day-to-day operations, the ski resort town went away from a volunteer fire department to a municipal department.

Hagenbarth acknowledged it wasn’t a smooth transition in Killington. “The conflict came when the new (fire) chief came in and set new rules that were different from what people were used to,” he said.

As for fire departments, in general, they are “an interesting group; they do dangerous work,” Hagenbarth said. “They are very good at what they do and they all have their own ways of looking at things, causing a fair amount of tension within the department, forget outside the department.”

Caroline Frost can be reached at neezyfrost@gmail.com.