Center Harbor's Fire Calls Triple in July. A Town-Funded Study Reports Back Nov. 18.

What happens to a fire department staffed "when personnel are available" in a month like July 2026, when it answered 71 calls, more than three times January's 22?

Center Harbor voted this year to pay an outside firm to answer that question. Municipal Resources, Inc. presents its report on the Center Harbor Fire Department's operations at a public hearing on Wednesday, November 18, at 6 p.m. in the Cary Mead Room of the Municipal Building, 36 Main Street. The town's hearing notice says public input is encouraged.

The report matters because Center Harbor's fire service runs two calendars. Its staffing model fits a quiet lake town in winter, and its call volume looks like a summer destination. Several decisions have been on hold for months until the report is in.

Two Towns on One Run Sheet

The fire department posts its monthly run counts on the town website. The 2026 numbers through September show the season clearly.

From January through April, the department averaged 23 calls a month, 92 in all. From May through September it handled 247, nearly three times as many in one more month. May alone nearly equaled the first two months of the year combined. September, after the summer crowds had thinned, still brought 48 calls, more than twice January's count.

For a town this size, July is a different job from January. The crew responding to it is the same.

A Decade Flat, Then a Jump

The yearly totals rose sharply in 2024 and have stayed high since.

From 2013 through 2023, the department's yearly totals stayed between 315 and 366 runs. Then 2024 came in at 494, and 2025 at 450. Both years are well above anything in the prior decade of the town's table.

The 2026 count of 339 runs through September already beats six of the full years between 2013 and 2021, with October, November and December still to come. Call volume that used to fill a year now fills nine months.

The Model Built for Quieter Years

The town's fire department page calls CHFD an "on-call" department. Per-diem shifts cover the daytime, and night stipends "provide nighttime coverage when personnel are available."

That small roster covers a lot. CHFD provides both fire and emergency medical services. Its staff includes EMTs, Advanced EMTs and Paramedics, who work with Stewart's Ambulance Service, the town's contracted transport agency. Firefighters are trained to the FF1 and FF2 levels. Some members also hold technical rescue certifications in ice rescue, high- and low-angle rope rescue, swift water and flat water. The department is also moving toward requiring all apparatus drivers to hold a Commercial Driver's License, Class B.

CHFD belongs to the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association and helps neighboring departments as part of that system.

Chief Tyler Driscoll leads the department, with Captain Chris Conway and Lieutenants Nathan Manville and Justin Conway. There are two stations, at 36 Main Street and 658 Dane Road. The engines date from 2004, 2011 and 2023. The 2004 truck is past 20 years old, and the study has already raised the question of what to do with the older engines.

What the Town Has Paid For So Far

The study started as one line on the 2026 warrant and has been shaping decisions at Town Hall ever since.

1. January 28, 2026. In the Selectboard's warrant review, Selectmen William Ricciardi, Richard Drenkhahn and Harry Viens all voted to recommend a special warrant article to "raise and appropriate the sum of $29,455 for a study of the Fire Department operations." At the same meeting they also recommended articles for a $175,000 lease-purchase of a fire rescue boat, a $58,000 lease-purchase of fire department radios, and a $6,000 capital reserve for firefighter protective equipment.
2. March 2026. Town Meeting approved the study, according to Citizen Portal's summary of the March 24 Selectboard meeting. Municipal Resources, Inc. was named as the consultant.
3. April 2026. Selectman Ricciardi, town staff and fire department representatives held a kickoff meeting with MRI's Brian Duggan and David Houghton. Citizen Portal reported that the group planned a ten-question community survey and discussed whether to refurbish or replace fire trucks.
4. June 2, 2026. Houghton recommended a summer shift incentive program for the department, and the Selectboard approved it unanimously as a pilot. Chief Driscoll was assigned to keep a tracking spreadsheet for the board to review, per Citizen Portal.
5. November 18, 2026. MRI presents its report at the public hearing.

The June pilot came in the middle of the study and was aimed at the months the run sheet shows as busiest. July 2026 turned out to be the peak month of the year, with 71 calls.

Decisions Waiting on One Report

In September, Chief Driscoll told the town's Joint Loss Management Committee that the operations review was ongoing and that several projects would stay on hold until it, or the related hazard-mitigation work, moved forward, according to Citizen Portal. Here is what's been waiting:

• The fire department oil-tank project, on hold until the operations review is done.
• New pads for the AEDs at the Town Office, the library and the Town Beach.
• The town's Emergency Operations Plan.
• The trucks. Refurbishing versus replacing apparatus came up at the April kickoff, and the fleet includes engines from 2004 and 2011.

Those AED locations are some of the town's most-used public buildings, and the beach is busiest in the same months the run sheet climbs. Because these items have been folded into the review, the November report affects equipment residents pass every week, beyond the station on Main Street.

A Parallel Conversation Started in Sandwich

On October 28, the Selectboard read a letter from the Sandwich Board of Selectmen. Sandwich had secured up to $50,000 through a "Go NORTH Planning Grant" to hire expert consultants to "develop a framework, expand regional partnerships and determine the feasibility of prospective EMS model adjustments." The minutes note that Center Harbor's selectmen "have previously discussed regionalization of services and would like to be included in this project."

The Sandwich effort is separate from the MRI study. Still, they line up. Three weeks before an outside firm reports on how Center Harbor staffs its own department, the town asked to join a regional look at how emergency medical service could be organized across town lines. CHFD already shares work across those lines through the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association and its ambulance contract with Stewart's.

Wednesday Night in the Cary Mead Room

The hearing is Wednesday, November 18, at 6 p.m. in the Cary Mead Room, Municipal Building, 36 Main Street. The meeting agenda is on the town's TownCloud portal. The Board of Selectmen hosts, MRI presents, and the floor is open for public comment.

After the hearing, the town's 2027 budget hearings are set for Saturday, January 23, and Wednesday, February 3, 2027, per the town's notice. The $29,455 for the study itself came through a special warrant article that the Selectboard reviewed in January.

The fire department and the Main Street station are part of what makes a lakeside property in Center Harbor work in every season. Mulligan Property Group follows Center Harbor's town meetings and budget sessions closely. If you own property here and want to talk through how decisions like these could affect it, schedule a private consultation with Ellen or Jill.