Fire chief Jeff Dahms has resigned after holding the post for about 10 months.
Dahms, in a telephone interview with the Advertiser, said the resignation came about for what he termed “personal reasons.”
“I want to leave this as a personal item,” he said.
The resignation was made Jan. 31 after discussions between Dahms, Mayor Ray Tout and township CAO Mike Givens.
The former chief was in the process of restructuring the service, which involved the closing down of duties formerly held by the chiefs at the Arthur and Mount Forest stations and rolling those duties under the auspices of the fire chief.
That restructuring, according to Givens, has been temporarily halted and will resume with the respective fire chiefs, Jim Morrison in Arthur and Ron MacEachern in Mount Forest.
“They’re going to handle the day-to-day administration of their departments,” Givens added.
“It’s not good timing,” said councillor Mark Goetz, the former chairman of the township fire committee.
Goetz confirmed restructuring plans were approved by council, but due to the resignation “never went through.” He expects once a replacement for Dahms is found the restructuring process will continue.
“I think we’re probably heading in the same direction.”
Dahms was also in the process of putting together the combined service’s 2014 budget.
Givens said the budget process will continue with input from the two station chiefs.
“It’s not good timing,” Givens said of the resignation. “It’s certainly not a happy situation.”
Givens said the issue will officially come to council at its next meeting on Feb. 10. In the meantime the CAO will look back at potential candidates for the chief’s position to see whether any of the candidates passed over in favour of Dahms would be interested in re-applying for the post. Failing that, Givens said, council may face re-tendering the position.
Tout also declined comment on the reason for the resignation.
