© 2024 88.9 KETR
Public Radio for Northeast Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Commerce could have a new Fire Chief this week

By Kevin Jefferies

Commerce – The City of Commerce could be announcing a new Fire Chief as early as Friday. Four candidates spent the day meeting and interviewing with city officials on Monday. Fourteen applicants applied for the position, and Commerce City Manager Bill Shipp said he was pleased to see the number of qualified applicants.

SHIPP: I'm always pleasantly surprised, quite frankly, of the quality applicants we get for jobs like this. On a pay scale basis, its sometimes hard for us to compete with some bigger cities, but we just get incredibly qualified people. And I'm just impressed every time.

The new Fire Chief will be replacing Wayne Hines who recently left to become a contract firefighter in Iraq. One immediate job task will be to continue work on lowering the city's ISO rating. The Insurance Services Organization, or ISO, rates the ability for cities to deal with fire emergencies. The rating affects insurance rates. Shipp said he hopes to have the new Fire Chief in place within the next two weeks.