Barrow County may have a new fire chief in less than three weeks.
Cairo Fire Chief Donald Towne met Tuesday afternoon with commission chairman Danny Yearwood, interim chief John Skinner, and interim deputy chief Bryan Bullock.
Immediately after that closed-door encounter, Towne attended a budget committee meeting where Skinner presented the Department of Emergency Services’ funding requests for FY2011.
Commission chairman Danny Yearwood during the meeting refused to answer any of the newspaper’s questions about Towne’s status.
But Skinner several times referred to the visitor from South Georgia as “chief,” giving the distinct impression that the hiring decision had been made.
At one point, Skinner even asked Towne to present to the committee some justification for a specific line item in the budget – a document he was reading for the first time in that meeting.
Operations Development Manager Bob Hohe immediately cried foul, joking that Towne had “only been on the job for an hour.”
Towne quipped that, technically, he wasn’t yet on the clock.
However, he did weigh in on a few of the figures Skinner included in the budget.
Towne said after the budget meeting that he has agreed to an annual salary of $63,000 and expects a formal offer from the county this week.
If all goes as planned, he said he would join the department June 21.
“I am grateful for the opportunity and look forward to becoming a part of the community.”
Skinner said Tuesday that it would be up to the new chief to determine his and Bullock’s future roles in the department’s administration. Both are in interim positions that are likely to be reexamined once Towne arrives.
The proposed budget calls for the reinstitution of the captain’s position Bullock held until November 2009, when he was promoted on an interim basis to deputy chief. The deputy chief’s position is for the chief of education and safety. Bullock filled the vacancy left by the former deputy chief, Russell Wise.
In approving Bullock’s move up to interim deputy chief, the board of commissioners abolished his former job as training officer, however.
The elimination of that salary enabled Commissioner Steve Worley to locate enough funding for three additional firefighter positions requested by the department.
Worley indicated at a May 19 budget committee meeting that he isn’t inclined to add back into the department’s budget the funding for the training officer position.
But it wasn’t clear at that point that the request could involve eliminating the interim deputy chief position.
While the future status of Bullock’s position also wasn’t clear during the budget committee’s meeting Tuesday, there was no indication that the committee would recommend abolishing both the deputy chief post and the training post.
Skinner noted with a smile that since taking over as interim chief he had made a point of not filling his old battalion chief position.
In a written statement to the newspaper Wednesday morning, he said he believes Chief Towne will do fine in Barrow County.
“I was able to spend a little time with him after the lengthy budget meeting and give him a tour of the new fire station and E911 center last night,” Skinner wrote.
“This gave us the opportunity to discuss the operations of Emergency Services and discuss things we need to focus on for the future.
“I am looking forward to working with him and moving the department forward.”
Towne said Skinner had done a great job as interim chief and that his love of firefighting and Barrow County is evident.
