Clark Swears In Fire Department Officers, New Chief

Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso sworn in seven officers for the Clark Volunteer Fire Department at Tuesday night's council meeting. 

The following officers were sworn into the following positions:

T.J. McDonald – Chief

Andy Beach - Former Chief who will now be Deputy Chief

Chris Matthews - Deputy Chief

Robert Venturella - Deputy Chief

Keith Sockell - Second Captain

Robert Perks - First Lieutenant

Joseph Urbanovich - Second Lieutanent

"The gentlemen I'm about to call up to be our officers are volunteers," said Bonaccorso as the swearing-in began. "They do not get paid. These gentlemen have risked their lives many times throughout the year, and they get called out in the middle of the night on Christmas and on New Year's and on Hanukkah and put their lives at risk. When you hear a fire truck go off understand there's a lot of good people doing a real good job for us."

"I look forward to working with everybody and doing the best job I can," Chief McDonald told Patch after the swearing-in.

Later in the meeting fire department liaison Alvin Barr read some of the statistics regarding the department this year, reporting that the department responded to 652 calls in 2011, which is the most calls on record for any year. Approximately 100 of those calls were related to Hurricane Irene and the October snowstorm.