Holmen fire board discussing new chief hiring today

Applications being taken through mid-July

The Holmen fire board will talk about the hiring of a new chief during a meeting today.  

Board member Chuck Olson says, while they have a stack of resumes for the job already, applications will be accepted through the mid-July.

He added that whomever is hired, it will involve some significant requirements.

“To, not only get a chief that can lead the dept., but also work with all the growth that’s happening in that area. Very important,” Olson said. “There’s just a change in the way that we have to look at an individual we may hire. We probably have to look, and are looking, for someone with more fire service education.

But, also, somebody that has the administrative skills to lead a growing dept.”

The fire department’s last chief resigned in January after getting suspended over accusations of mismanagement. 

Olson says the board hopes to have a new chief in place by Oct. 1.

The mostly volunteer dept. provides fire protection for the towns of Holland and Onalaska, along with the village of Holmen.

“We can take a lesson from Onalaska, in that we’re probably going to be looking at a dept. in the future that’s going to have more full-time staff,” Olson said. “Not a full-time staff all the way across the board, but we need to get a fire dept. that has more people on duty 24 hours a day.”