Leland promoted to fire chief

Six years after he joined the department and two years after he was appointed the assistant fire chief, Gregory Leland was promoted to fire chief, effective July 1.

Leland has a long tradition of fire service in his family, his father serving on the Tisbury Fire Department for 44 years, and two other generations also fighting fires.

Fire Chief John Schilling, who is scheduled for mandatory retirement as of June 30, pointed out that Tisbury has had great success with its fire chiefs holding the position for a long time.

“This is a big deal. In the history of the Tisbury Fire Department, Greg represents only the 10th chief since 1895,” Schilling said. “When a chief is appointed to the Tisbury Fire Department, there is a history of that person being in that position for a significant period of time. To put that in perspective, in my 18 years, we’ve had five police chiefs. So this is a big deal. Greg has made the commitment … He’s worked hard to achieve this position. I congratulate him. He has the support of the members of the department. I’m glad he has the support of the board of selectmen, and I look forward to him earning the respect of the community moving forward. He’s a great man for the job, and I look forward to turning the keys over to him on June 30th.”

Selectman Jim Rogers, a retired member of the department, bemoaned the fact that the appointment could not be done in person. “It stinks that we’re doing this like this,” he said before congratulating Leland. “Greg’s family goes back to his great-grandfather, who was a fire chief in the town of West Bridgewater, and his father, who was supervising captain for the Tisbury Fire Department, and he and I were on the same engine truck for a long time. I really wish we could do this in person.”

Typically, such appointments are made in the Katharine Cornell Theater, with family members and members of the department in attendance. Instead, Leland had his family by his side on the Zoom call, and his youngest child, Killian, was on his lap.

Reached after the meeting, Leland said he is looking forward to following in his father’s footsteps — something he never thought would happen.

“Growing up, I never thought this was the route I was going to go,” Leland told The Times. “I went into the military, and thought that is where I was going to retire.”

Shoulder injuries forced him to leave the U.S. Army, and back home on the Island, some family members urged him to join the Oak Bluffs Fire Department. When a position opened up in Tisbury on his father’s old truck, he applied and was hired.

Leland credits Schilling with talking to him about his aspirations. “You could do more if you wanted to,” Leland recalls Schilling telling him. “There’s an opportunity if you want to work for it.”

He did, and on Tuesday night, those aspirations turned into a contract to be Tisbury’s fire chief for at least the next three years.

“It’s a process like anything to get through the application and the voting and getting through the contract portion,” Leland said. “We came up with a mutually acceptable contract that benefits the town, the department, and myself.”

According to town finance director Jon Snyder, if the town’s 2.2 percent cost of living increase remains in effect, Leland will earn $96,883 as fire chief. That will be $94,795 if the town doesn’t move forward with the increase. Schilling earned $125,906 in his final year as fire chief, according to Snyder.

In other business, Elio Silva had three public hearings before the Tisbury board of selectmen Tuesday for common victualer’s licenses, but one of them ran into a COVID-19 roadblock.

Silva never had a common victualer’s license for Vineyard Grocer at 222 State Road, which is required because he sells prepared foods in the grocery store. And it will be another week before he comes into compliance, because the town’s inspectors, Schilling and building inspector Ross Seavey, want to see the fire suppression system before signing off on it.

Selectmen considered approving the license conditionally, but Schilling urged the board to wait.

“They have a substantial takeout business there. So this is a significant portion of their business,” Schilling said. “I would not be in favor of a conditional license unless there are some limitations on that.”

With exit signs being installed Wednesday, Schilling said, he and Seavey could get in before the end of the week and report back to selectmen next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Silva is taking over Bobby B’s Pizza and Bernie’s Ice Cream at 22 Main St. Both of those licenses were approved, and Silva shared some exciting news. He’ll be reducing some ice cream flavors to begin selling bakery items from Maison Villatte, the popular Falmouth bakery.

“That’s going to ruin my diet,” Melinda Loberg, chair of the board of selectmen, joked.

“Every time I go off-Island, I spend like $70 at Maison Villatte,” Silva said. “You can’t resist that stuff.” 

Silva said he hoped to have renovation work completed at Bernie’s Ice Cream by now, but it was delayed by the pandemic. “We were hoping to have it done by now, but with the COVID-19, everything got delayed,” he said. “I wish we could get it done for the summer, but the summer is right around the corner.”

Silva said he is also going to be selling Cape Cod Bagels in the shop, along with coffee.

Common victualer’s licenses were also approved for Wolf’s Den Pizza and Italplat, a new Italian restaurant owned by Dusan Veselinovic and Salvatore Delle Torre. Both men appeared on the Zoom call from the restaurant, and sat near each other.

“Look at those two guys, they’re great. They’re sitting there with their masks on,” Loberg said.

Veselinovic said they’re ready to get going as soon as possible, at least serving takeout.

Before the meeting came to a close in a brisk 60 minutes because of a Zoom-imposed deadline, MacAleer Schilcher told the board there is a stormwater pipe that is polluting Lake Tashmoo, and urged the board to do something about it. He asked the town to at least put an oil sock over the drain to cut down on pollution, and even offered to pay for it himself. Loberg said town administrator Jay Grande would alert DPW director Kirk Metell about it. Rogers cautioned there might be little the town can do, because the storm drain originates on a state road.