NAHANT – Town officials are looking for ways to pay for a new firefighter position despite the fiscal constraints the town is under.Historically, the department has had one chief and eight firefighters. The eight firefighters worked in four different shifts of two men each and the chief worked five days a week.Since Chief Edward Hyde was appointed acting fire chief in April 2010, he has been working a regular firefighter’s shift. Hyde was appointed permanent chief this fall.Nahant Town Administrator Mark Cullinan said he believes it is important to have a chief at the helm of the department, who is not working a standard shift in addition to his regular duties.”Chief Hyde works a shift,” Cullinan said. “Ideally I want to hire a firefighter to fill the shift so Chief Hyde can be in the station every day.”Hyde agreed the best way to run the department is to have a chief on duty five days a week, who works with each shift.”It is important to have a consistent presence in the station,” Hyde said. “We all need to be on the same page about our mission and I can’t effectively guide my firefighters unless I’m there on a full-time basis.”Hyde admits working a shift, which is generally 24 hours on duty followed by 24 hours off duty, makes it difficult to run the department the way he would like.”I would like to have a presence in the station every day throughout the week where I can interact with each group (of firefighters),” Hyde said. “Due to rotating schedule, if I didn’t come in on my day off I would only see some firefighters once every couple of weeks.”Hyde said another concern is two of the four groups of firefighters that man the station do not have an officer in charge on duty at all times.”There needs to be someone in charge of each group because I’m not there 24 hours a day seven days a week,” Hyde said. “Lt. Dean Palumbo is in charge of one of the groups and I am in charge of one group. But we have two groups without officers and I hope to rectify that situation.”Hyde said firefighting is very different now than it was 25 years ago when he joined the department.”It’s not like the old days,” he said. “I’m dealing with DPH (Department of Public Health), MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency), FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Homeland Security and grant applications as well as running the department. The paperwork and red tape is very involved and time consuming.”Cullinan said the starting pay for one firefighter is approximately $44,238 including benefits. He said he had preliminary discussions with the Finance Committee and it seems receptive to the idea of adding another firefighter but the question is where the money would come from to fund the position.Cullinan said the preliminary Governor’s budget was a “mixed bag” and it appears the town will be receiving $55,000 less than he anticipated.”I budgeted for a 10 percent decrease in local aid,” Cullinan said. “But the governor’s budget appears to shift more money to the school and less to the town. The only way I think we’ll get a new firefighter is if the House version (of the budget) is different from the governor’s.”