The town of Edgartown has named Andrew Kelly to the position of assistant fire chief.

Mr. Kelly will replace former assistant chief Scott Ellis, who announced his retirement this fall after 35 years of service to the volunteer department. He is a full-time plumber, and the duties of assistant chief had become unmanageable, he said. “The position was getting to be more work than I had time for,” he said. In recent years, requirements for training and paperwork have been building at fire departments across the commonwealth due to state mandates.

“Now, for every incident, there needs to be an incident report done, filed with the state, so there is a lot more time involved,” he explained.

Mr. Ellis, who served as assistant chief for seven years, plans to stay involved as an advisory member on the board of fire engineers. During the course of his fire department tenure, he rose through the ranks from firefighter to lieutenant to captain to senior captain. “There is a great group of men and women on the fire department, so it’s always exciting,” he said.

He was involved in the process of vetting the candidates who applied for his position.

There were three applicants; captain Sam Koohy and lieutenants Jake Sylvia and Andrew Kelly, all of whom met and exceeded the department’s expectations, Mr. Ellis said.

“It was a tough decision,” said fire chief Peter Shemeth.

Ultimately, the fire engineers settled on Mr. Kelly, a lieutenant with extensive leadership experience.

Mr. Kelly, who works as a landscaper, has already proven himself as an instructor and teacher in the department, Mr. Shemeth said. He has led department drills and worked with the junior firefighters.

“He has a lot of experience with training,” Mr. Shemeth said.

Mr. Kelly also has availability to respond to calls during the day, a major asset to the department.