Clear Lake’s fire chief retiring, discusses department leadership future with Clear Lake City Council

CLEAR LAKE — Clear Lake’s longtime Fire Chief and Emergency Medical Services Service Director is retiring on January 5th. Doug Meyers has spent the past 50 years as a firefighter and has been the community’s fire chief for the last 26 years.

During his time as the city’s chief, the department has established paramedic ambulance service, upgraded emergency vehicles, and constructed a new fire station. The city’s Insurance Services Office rating has improved from a “Class 6” to a “Class 3” rating, resulting in lower fire insurance premiums for property owners in the community.

Meyers has covered both the Fire Chief and EMS Service Director positions, and he says fire department leadership is recommending hiring a Co-EMS Service Director separate from the Fire Chief position.   “What we’d like to do is create a supervisor position within the EMS division, allow any of the paramedics to apply for that, go through an application process where they interview with City Administrator Steve Diers and Finance Director Jacob Widman, and our leadership team within the department, and see who would be the best fit. I feel that we’ve got the staff now to do that, that have the capabilities and the talents to serve in that role.”

Meyers says the new Fire Chief would work hand-in-hand with a new EMS Director.  “Our volunteer network, we have individuals that are more than capable of serving as volunteer fire chief, and our model that we are presenting to you today incorporates both of those lines. So the fire chief would still have complete operational control and strategic control of the department. The EMS co-director would answer directly to the fire chief.”

Meyers made his comments to the City Council earlier this week. The council will appoint a new Fire Chief at a future meeting.