PC Fire Dept. moves forward after resignations
By JESSICA LOWE NDN Staff Writer
Members of the Prairie City Fire Department are moving forward to serve their community after a shake up on the all-volunteer fire department in the city of 1,400 people.
The shake up occurred after a dozen firefighters on the department resigned during a city council meeting on Wednesday. Prairie City City Administrator Andrew Elbert said the resignations stemmed from internal conflicts on the department.
“Any time you have a larger organization there is some type of internal conflicts,” he said. “From the staff standpoint we knew there was some internal conflict.”
Among those resigning were PC Fire Chief John Cline and the assistant fire chief. Elbert said Ryan Van Der Kamp has been appointed the interim fire chief.
Elbert said despite the resignations, the residents of the southwest Jasper County community were receiving quality service from remaining members of the fire department.
“As of right now we do have enough to provide adequate and sufficient coverage,” Elbert said.
The department was scheduled to have six firefighters join the department after a special meeting Monday where applications were to be approved by PCFD members.
Elbert said along with the continued service of the remaining 13 members and the newly appointed six members, the city has 28E agreements with the cities of Monroe and Colfax.
“Both the fire chiefs and the Jasper County Dispatcher have been called,” said Elbert, adding both the Monroe and Colfax departments will be dispatched if there is a fire call in Prairie City.
The city will be beefing up recruitment efforts to restore numbers to the department.
“We’re comfortable where we are now but obviously we want to move fast and somewhat aggressively,” Elbert said.
“But we don’t want to sacrifice quality for quantity.”
