SIDNEY — The Civil Service Commission certified the scores and ranking of the two Sidney fire lieutenants up for the vacant assistant fire chief position Thursday morning.
The Sidney Department of Fire and Emergency Services has been in the process of making several position changes due the March retirement of Deputy Fire Chief Cameron Haller, the sudden passing of Lt. Tony McLain last November, and two other predicted retirements over the next year. Sidney Police Department (SPD) is adding to its team of officers.
Commission members, including Commission Chair Karl Bemus, Joyce Goubeaux and John Schmidt, and Sidney Fire Chief Brad Jones, and Human Resources Manager Vickie Allen, immediately went into an executive session after approving the April meeting’s minutes. Upon emerging from the session, the commission certified the scores and ranking of the fire lieutenants who tested.
In order to allow time for the city of Sidney to notify and present an offer to the highest scoring fire lieutenant, there will be a follow up story with the name of the newly promoted assistant fire chief in Saturday’s paper.
In other business, Allen told commission members at the next meeting in June, the commission will certify the Civil Service scores for the two vacant Sidney firefighter positions.
After internal promotions are awarded at Sidney Fire, there will be two immediate vacancies among the three fire crews that work every third day. All three assistant chiefs were eligible to apply for the deputy fire position, of which Chad Hollinger was promoted to on April 28. Hollinger’s promotion then left a vacant assist chief position. All five of the lieutenants were eligible to apply for the empty assistant chief position. Thirteen of the remaining firefighters were eligible to apply for the open lieutenant position, of which Ryan Heitman was promoted to on April 8. These promotions will leave two firefighter vacancies that need to be filled. Then later in the year, after two others retire, two more firefighters will need to be added.
