Bill Halstead has been elected president of the Connecticut State Firefighters Association.

The Sandy Hook resident, who is in his 43rd year as chief of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company, was elected to the CSFA office on September 19, during the association’s annual convention.

CSFA, according to its website, is the central organization for Connecticut’s fire service members in matters relating to federal and state legislative initiatives, firefighter death and disability benefit claims, and the exchange of pertinent information. It also coordinates with fire service organizations at the national, state, and regional levels.

Members represent paid and volunteer companies and departments. For fiscal year 2018-19, the nonprofit organization had 26,750 000 members, 22,000 of whom were volunteer firefighters.

CSFA’s 137th annual convention — with social distancing measures observed — was held September 18-19 in Waterbury.

Elections were held on Saturday. Terms went into effect immediately, Halstead said this week.

Bradley Richardson, president of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue, said on September 21 that the election of Halstead to CSFA’s top post “is indicative of the respect Bill and our department has statewide, as well as within that group.”

In brief, the duties of the president mean Halstead will run and oversee the operations of CSFA for at least the next 12 months. Each term runs one year, and the position can be held for no more than two terms, Halstead said this week.

“You run the quarterly meetings, and you have to be involved with whatever’s going on with the various committees. You are an ex-officio on every committee.

“You’re also the go-between with other fire organizations throughout Connecticut,” he added.

Halstead has three things he plans to focus on during the next 12 months.

“One of my things is I want to get the membership up. My goal is to get more people involved,” he said September 22. “Like most organizations, numbers seem to be dwindling.”

He would also like to continue, he said, “putting out meaningful legislation that’s going to benefit firefighters and the fire service in Connecticut.”

His third goal for the year calendar year is to continue to get funding for a fire school to be built in Beacon Falls, he said.

It is a short but important list for the new president.

“I’m not making a pile of goals. I want to do manageable things,” Halstead said this week. “I don’t want to put a pile of goals out there, and then be like those people who never come anywhere near finishing them.”

A longstanding member of CSFA, Halstead has in recent years been the association’s second vice president and then first vice president. He also served several years ago as Fairfield County vice president. He was inducted into CSFA's Hall of Fame in 2011.

In addition to serving as chief of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue, he is a member of Connecticut Fire Marshals Association, Connecticut Fire Chiefs, International Association of Fire Chiefs, International Association of Arson Investigators, Fairfield County Chiefs (and past president), Fairfield/New Haven County Fire Marshals Association, and Connecticut Parade Marshals.

He retired as fire chief of Fairfield Hills in 1997, and is the former Fire Marshal for the Town of Newtown, having retired from that post in 2016.