Paradise Valley fire volunteers quit

BONNERS FERRY — The Paradise Valley Fire Department has gone from 16 to nine firefighters after a new board was elected and a popular fire chief was fired.

The substantial reduction in force has the acting fire chief and others worried that the PVFB doesn’t have enough firefighters to deal with a large structure fire.

“It depends on the size of the structure fire but if it was a large one, we would not have enough in our crew to deal with it without help from other departments,” said acting chief Doug Ladely Jr.

Ladely has been the acting chief since an April 16 meeting when the PVFB board fired well-respected chief Jock Johnson.

When a new board was seated in January one of the first orders of business was to reduce the chief’s salary from $45,000 to $24,000 a year, as well as reducing the chief’s hours.

According to Johnson, board vice chairman Brad Holified came to him before a board meeting Jan. 13 and said Johnson would need to bring a proposal to the meeting or he would lose his job.

At the meeting, Johnson said the salary reduction would be fine. He was still sacked. Neither Johnson nor the board will comment on the exact reason Johnson was fired.

While running for board positions, Holifield and Orrin Everhart said they would make many changes to the way PVFB was run.

“They ran on three things,” said Johnson. “They stated in an open meeting they would aggressively seek volunteers and aggressively seek grant money and that meetings would be fully publicized.”

Attracting volunteers has been tough without a chief, Everhart said. Recruiting will be a top priority with a new chief.

The PVFB meetings had not been publicized in the Herald. Holified approached the Herald last week to request that regular meetings run in the paper.

The real question is, why was this popular and effective fire chief fired even after he accepted a huge pay decrease?

The morale in what remains of the department is low. There is also confusion among the firefighters about the circumstances that led to Johnson’s sacking.

The firefighters have never been told.

“He was a very good leader he took care of all of us, he upgraded our equipment, training and applied and received grants and got money donated,” said PVFD Capt. Tom Bennett.

Bennett, who has known Johnson for five years, feels like the board has a vendetta against Johnson and said other firefighters feel the same way.

“The chief upgraded us to a number one department and I believe he was unjustly relieved of duty,” said Bennett.

Fire Commissioner Everhart said he is not at liberty to give a reason for the decision to fire Johnson. He stated it is not fair for him to talk about an employee’s termination with anyone — including volunteer firefighters.

“I am there to help the community. I think it is completely wrong what they have done to our former chief and the public,” said firefighter Ben Mitchell. “The chief has busted his butt since he started. Jock took our department from nothing to a top-notch department, he helped us by working hard to make the community safer with better EMS and fire protection.”

According to PVFD Lt. Engineer Chet Savage, before Johnson became chief, the PVFD did not meet minimum safety standards on the old equipment. Johnson sold equipment dating back to the 1950s and sold them to get newer equipment at no cost to fire association members.

“The chief raised the money and now we meet minimum safety standards on all vehicles. He networks with other departments and joins organizations,” said Savage. “Jock helped us get certifications by upgrading our equipment and training.”

“I love what I do,” said Savage. My life has not been the same since these commissioners have been around and they have taken the spirit out of it, so to speak. I don’t trust the people that are running the district and I don’t feel like I have their support.”

When Bonners Ferry Fire Chief Pat Warkentin hear the news of Johnson being fired, it didn’t make sense to him either,

Soon after Johnson was fired, the Bonners Ferry City Council and Mayor David Anderson approved putting him on the BFFD as the department training officer.

Johnson has already completed emergency vehicle driver training for department members as well as two firefighter certification courses for the department.

“I have a problem understanding how that (firing) transpired,” said Warkentin. “From where I sit he has improved training, improved the equipment and brought in multiple thousands of dollars in grant funding and improved the department overall.

“We had a really excellent working relationship with PVFD and in my mind if defies common sense to terminate this kind of administrator.”

Johnson is proud of his time as the PVFD and was proud of the type of hardworking, professional  firefighters at PVFD.

“I wish this wouldn’t have happened but the board made its decision,” he said.

Everhart understands the frustration surrounding Johnson’s firing but is moving on to hire a new chief and says he has a couple of good prospects.

There has been one new firefighter recruited in the past two weeks at PVFD and Everhart praised Ladley is doing a good job filling in.

“I believe things will improve when a new fire chief is hired,” Everhart said.