NORTON - A new memorial and flagpole will be dedicated to former longtime Fire Chief Harold Wetherell next month at the Chartley Fire Station.

Voters appropriated $3,000 to $3,500 in 2006 for the memorial, Fire Chief Richard Gomes said.

The dedication is scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 14 at the Chartley Fire Station on South Worcester Street.

40 years as chief

Wetherell served as fire chief for 40 years, from 1930 until retiring Dec. 31, 1970, Gomes said. Wetherell donated the land for the Chartley station in 1955, according to the Norton Historical Society's Web site.

Invitations are going out to community members, town officials and area fire chiefs and firefighters, Gomes said.

Reese Rounds is the only active Norton firefighter who served under Wetherell, Gomes said.

The highway department and others built the memorial, Gomes said.

The flagpole will be new, too.

The existing flagpole was dedicated in 1998 to Edward Burgess, the father of retired Fire Chief George Burgess, Gomes said.