Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Fire District 5’s experiment with employing a part-time chief didn’t work out.

A year and a half after stepping into the role at the fire department that protects the greater Napavine area, Chief Gregg Peterson has stepped down.

The change took place last month and district’s board of commissioners is planning now to hire someone full-time to lead the department.

Commissioner Lyle Hojem said part time just isn’t enough time, because the district has so many calls to respond to.

“It was amiable, he knew,” Hojem said yesterday. “It wasn’t something he objected to in any way; we had the highest regard for him.”

Peterson was sworn in last spring, with a contract that  called for him to work up to 32 hours, with an annual salary of $40,000.

The previous chief and his second-in-command had resigned two months earlier. Jamie Guenther, chair of the board of commissioners when Peterson was hired, said at the time that a lot of people didn’t like the high wages paid to former Chief Eric Linn.

Linn was paid $82,000 a year and benefits that totaled more than $19,000.

Lewis County Fire District 5, re-named Newaukum Valley Fire and Rescue, serves a population of about 12,000 over a 66-square-mile area south of Chehalis.

Hojem said  Peterson was actually the one who brought the issue to the attention of the commissioners, recognizing it “some time ago”, and the commissioners agreed.

“We found a part-time chief just didn’t work for Lewis County Fire District 5,” he said.

Peterson, who served the previous six years as the volunteer chief in the Boistfort Valley where he resides, retired in 2011 from a professional firefighter career in South King County.

His retirement plan doesn’t allow him to continue receiving payments if he works more than part-time as a chief, Hojem said, and the board wasn’t going to ask him to give up his retirement money to stay on with them.

Hojem said the board is beginning to get its “ducks in order”, preparing a job description and then advertising for the position.

They hope to bring on a new chief by April, he said.

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2016 at 11:53 am and is filed under Top story of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.