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Deputy Chief Dwight Fuehring, center, is interviewed by the administrative board and fire chiefs from other counties.
White to retire as Hart fire chief; Fuehring to take over.
By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.
HART — Hart Fire Chief Jack White will retire from his duties with Hart Area Fire Department but will remain the fire chief of Shelby-Benona Fire Department “for the time being,” he said.
White will step down as the Hart chief at the end of November, and Deputy Chief Dwight Fuehring will take over as chief, White said. A long-time member of the Hart Area Fire Department, Fuehring has served as the deputy chief during the last decade.
Hart Area Fire Department and Shelby-Benona Fire Department Chief Jack White
The department’s administrative board conducted an interview last week of Fuehring — the sole applicant for the position. In-house applicants were sought for the position. The open meeting is posted as a live video on the department’s Facebook page. Fire chiefs from three other departments in Kent, Newaygo and Osceola counties interviewed Fuehring, White said.
White said that when he was appointed as Hart’s chief nearly four years ago, he told the board it was not a “long-term solution.”
“I came in with the goal of getting the training program in a direction it needed to go, and I think I accomplished that.” White said he is also pleased with equipment and policy changes that occurred under his leadership.
However, being a chief of two departments has had its challenges. “I struggled to be a chief of two departments. For the long-haul, that would be hard.” Having two different governing boards and two different teams of firefighters created hurdles. “You can’t treat them as one,” he said.
White has been the fire chief in Shelby for 14 years.
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