Boyceville fire board receives 4 applications for fire chief
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Fire District Board has received four applications for the position of fire chief.
The Boyceville fire board received the applications for fire chief at a special meeting on December 3 at the Boyceville fire station.
Karl Hackbarth, representative for the Town of Stanton and chair of the Boyceville fire board, opened the envelopes containing the applications for fire chief and asked the Tribune Press Reporter to confirm the names of the applicants.
The applicants for fire chief were Donald Heldt, Josh Pittman, Greg Holden and Tim Fasbender (with the envelopes opened in that order).
Pittman currently is serving as the interim fire chief for the Boyceville fire department.
Former Boyceville fire chief Matt Lunderville resigned effective December 1.
Interview committee
The Boyceville fire board approved three board members to serve on the interview committee: Hackbarth; Lisa Pederson, representative for the Town of New Haven; and Michelle Drury, representative for the Town of Hay River.
The fire board had initially determined that two board members should be part of the interview committee, but Hackbarth, Pederson and Drury all volunteered.
Board members decided that Hackbarth, as chair of the fire board, should be on the interview committee.
Pederson, a sergeant with the UW-Stout police department, has served as a firefighter and an EMT, and Drury, as chair of the Town of Hay River and the former clerk in Hay River, who is currently the assistant finance director at Pierce County and the former accounting supervisor at St. Croix County, has had experience in interviewing people for job positions.
The interview committee also will include two firefighters from the Boyceville fire department as well as an independent person, such as Mark Renderman, the fire chief in Altoona, or Mike Fitzgerald, the fire chief in Spring Valley.
Hackbarth noted that he had talked with Pittman about firefighters to serve on the interview committee, and Pittman had said the firefighters would have their monthly meeting a week from the following Monday and would decide on firefighters then for the interview committee.
The interview committee will have to be careful on any follow-up questions that are asked in addition to the list of questions that are asked of all candidates so all candidates have an opportunity to respond to all of the same questions, Drury said.
After a fairly lengthy discussion on when to conduct the interviews, how much time to devote to the interviews and the best way to approach the interviews, the Boyceville fire board settled on conducting interviews on December 18 and December 19.
By-laws
The Boyceville Community Fire District Board also briefly discussed the by-laws for the fire district and agreed that board members should review the by-laws, note any revisions they would like to see in the by-laws and bring their suggestions for revisions to the next meeting.
In addition, the Boyceville fire board briefly discussed a code of conduct for the firefighters.
Without the backing of the firefighters, a code of conduct “is no good,” Pederson said.
The firefighters must know that they are accountable to the fire board, Hackbarth said.
The firefighters should review the code of conduct and discuss it first before the fire board discusses it, Pederson said.
The Boyceville Community Fire District Board is scheduled for a regular quarterly meeting on December 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boyceville fire station.
