Saugus Emergency Management in transition

SAUGUS – Town residents are left wondering what will happen to the Emergency Management Department now that Paul Penachio has resigned as director and a firefighter for the town.Though officials will not disclose the reasons behind Penachio?s resignation, Town Manager Scott Crabtree told Finance Committee members in a recent meeting that Saugus Fire Chief Donald McQuaid would be taking over the Emergency Management Department.Crabtree addressed the situation in the meeting after Finance Committee Chairman Robert Palleschi asked when the holiday lights strung around the town would be taken down.Fritz White, who resigned as deputy chief of Emergency Management when American Ambulance took over their former Hamilton Street headquarters in December, said he did not know why longtime co-worker Penachio resigned, but said he has not been present at the recent meetings with Crabtree that White attended on the future of the Emergency Management Department. According to White, Penachio had said his reasons for resigning were “something he could not talk about.”White said looking to the department?s future, he would like to see the department have a permanent location for its headquarters “without having to worry about it being arbitrarily moved at someone?s whim,” he added, referring to December?s uprooting and others in the past.White said he worried that if the department doesn?t get the attention it needs, it will be dissolved into “just a planning piece” instead of a volunteer-based department like other municipalities have done. “It would be a loss to the town,” said White.