County chairman to extend fire chief offer

Yearwood last Thursday met personally with Towne. After the vote, he refused to comment on how that meeting went or what he thinks of him.

“No comment,” he said.

Towne was the second choice of the selection committee that included two fire chiefs from other counties who volunteered to help Barrow County select its next chief. The committee’s top selection withdrew his application after meeting with Yearwood.

The selection committee chairman, Commissioner Billy Parks, hours before Tuesday’s meeting told the Barrow Journal that he did not know if there would be a vote that night.

He said he had not heard from Yearwood since his May 20 interview of Towne.

After the vote, Parks said he thought Towne would do well as chief of Barrow County Emergency Services, though he would have a lot to learn.

“He has some military background and is a very disciplined young man,” Parks said. “I think he interviewed well, was very polite, had a good personality.

“I think he will get along with the firefighters. He’ll have a lot to learn. The Barrow County fire department will have to work with him, and they can do that, and I believe they will do that.”

According to his 30-page application, Towne, 40, has been the fire chief of the small town of Cairo in south Georgia since 2007. That department has one station with three fire trucks, 15 paid firefighters, and 17 volunteer firefighters.

From 2002 to 2007, he was a captain of the fire department in Kingsland, where he supervised a shift and was the hazardous materials coordinator. During the same period, he also worked as a part-time firefighter/EMT for the city of St. Mary’s.

Prior to working for the Kingsland fire department, he worked as a city police officer.

From 1995 to 2001, he was the assistant fire chief for Camden County Fire Rescue, which has seven fire stations and provides EMS services.

Towne served in the U.S. Coast Guard for four years. He is currently working toward an associate’s degree in fire science at West Georgia Technical College in LaGrange.