Paramedic Mike Beaver was named Sweet Home’s new fire chief Monday morning.
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Board made the announcement Monday morning after interviewing three in-house candidates for the position on Saturday. Beaver succeeds Dean Gray, who took a medical retirement earlier last month.
The board was really impressed with all three,” Board President Don Hopkins said. “We selected Mike because he personifies what the volunteers, employees and community had indicated to us was a priority in our selection, and that was current EMT status certification. We’re just very pleased with our selection.”
Beaver officially will take his new position on July 1 when all equipment and personnel transfer from the City of Sweet Home to the new District, although the new District was officially organized on Jan. 1.
After 17 years working for Willamette Industries, Beaver became a volunteer with Sweet Home Fire Department in 1986. He was hired as a emergency medical technician-firefighter in 1989. He worked there for a year before he was hired by Albany Fire Department as a paramedic-firefighter. He returned to Sweet Home in 1994.
“I was born here,” Beaver said. “Other than the little bit of time I lived in Albany, I’d never lived anywhere else.”
Beaver moved back to Sweet Home and became a local volunteer about a year before he was hired back by the Sweet Home Fire Department.
He had missed having a 10-minute drive to hunting and fishing, but friends and family were the main reason he moved back to Sweet Home.
There have been quite a few changes in the Department in the last six to eight years, starting with the doubling of the paid staff from three to six, Beaver said. A couple of years ago, the Department restructured and made its administrative clerk full time, a move that turned out to be good for the department with the many different hats worn by the clerk.
The changes culminated in the formation of the new Fire and Ambulance District this year, approved by voters in November.
Quite a bit of work on the part of citizens in the community and fire department personnel in making the new fire district, Beaver said. “It didn’t make any sense to be able to step out of the Fire Department, look up at Mark’s Ridge and be able to see some place that’s not even in our district.”
Issues with the new District will be among the challenges Beaver will face as the new chief.
“Right now, we’re in a transition period,” Beaver said. “We’ve obviously expanded our fire boundaries, which creates some challenges for us.”
The District is in the process of trying to build a new station in Cascadia, something that had been promised as part of the proposal for the new District.
“One thing that’s always been a real problem in our department is rural water supply,” Beaver said. “With the expansion of the new District, that makes the problem even bigger.”
Instead of just worrying about water supply five miles out, the District must look at water supply 15 miles or more out from the City of Sweet Home.
Ambulance call volumes were up about 280 over the last year, Beaver said. To address that, District staff are proposing hiring a new paramedic, also proposed when the District went before voters in November.
Beaver said he would like to get the District back into education. The Fire Department used to do annual fire safety day and more education.
“Because of our increasing call volume it’s really limited,” Beaver said. “We can only spread out so much and still focus on fire prevention.”
“I enjoy going and talking to grade school students about fire prevention,” Beaver said. “They really take that home with them.”
He has seen students later on, and they would still be talking about “stop, drop and roll” or having a fire plan in their home.
In other areas, Beaver said, the District will need to look at future equipment needs as a result of the expansion of the district.
The District will need to consider personnel needs as well, which does not mean hiring five to 10 new persons, Beaver said. “It’s amazing what one person can add.”
The District also needs to take a look at recruiting more rural volunteers, particularly in the Crawfordsville and Cascadia areas.
On the emergency medical services side, a quick-response vehicle and trained volunteers at Cascadia would improve response times to the east end of the District, which extends ambulance service to the junction of highways 20 and 22.
Beaver applauded the District’s volunteers and paid staff’s commitment and years of service.
“We’ve got a good staff of paid and volunteer people here,” Beaver said. “People don’t stick around if they don’t like what you’re doing.”
Fire District personnel are all friends and tight-knit, he said.
“I look forward to really working with the citizens of the community and our current staff, keeping our reputation intact and serving the citizens the best we can,” Beaver said. He welcomes anyone to visit him at the Fire Department to talk and share ideas. “We certainly can’t think of everything.”
Beaver and the District can be reached at 367-5882.