Mayor scolds Revere fire chief over wedding ride

REVERE – A firefighter?s wedding day ride on a ladder truck did not cost the department money, but earned Chief Eugene Doherty a verbal reprimand from Mayor Thomas Ambrosino.?We talked and I said I would use better judgement in the future,” Doherty said Wednesday about his decision to allow Firefighter Kevin O?Hara to ride from Revere to his nuptials at the Nahant Country Club on Oct. 17.After learning about the nine mile ride, Ambrosino said Doherty “showed very poor judgement in this incident.” Despite his subsequent misgivings about the ride, Doherty on Wednesday said the excursion involved a ladder truck that was out of service on Oct. 17 as part of the department?s efforts to reduce spending in the face of budget reductions.Doherty said two off-duty firefighters volunteered to drive O?Hara to his wedding and said he paid the trip?s $20 fuel cost.?Maybe going to Nahant was a stretch,” he said.Doherty said fire equipment is used for non-departmental purposes including parades and other events. Fire equipment in other communities, including Lynn and Nahant, have participated in funerals for local military personnel. A Swampscott and Lynn truck helped mark the start of August?s Vietnam memorial wall visit in Lynn by raising their ladders in front of Lynn?s Broadway station and suspending an American flag over Broadway.Doherty said the wedding ride was also an opportunity to appreciate O?Hara for volunteer work he does on the department?s behalf and his service as a firefighter.?He?s a gung-ho kid,” the chief said.Notwithstanding the dust-up over the prenuptial ride, Doherty said he is looking forward to using federal stimulus money to restore local fire equipment to service, pay for department overtime and even hire one or two additional firefighters.In the face of city spending cuts prompted by state local aid reductions, Doherty has worked since last March to hold the line on Fire Department spending by keeping a fire engine or ladder truck and its crew out of service.He has rotated the service reductions between the Revere Beach Parkway, North Revere, Broadway and beach area stations.