fire department helm Consolidation of departments one goal of new chief A Brockport fire department veteran who will celebrate 20 years of volunteer service with the BFD in September was recently elected as the new Brockport Fire Chief. While Christian McCullough was elected in an uncontested race, he said the number of confidence votes he received from his fellow firefighters was very gratifying. "It meant a lot to me that they took the time to come out and vote," he said. McCullough replaced former Fire Chief Greg Wing who retired on December 31. Although retired from the chief's post, Wing plans to remain active in the department in which he had been the chief for three years. During Wing's tenure the department was able to save taxpayers money by building their own fire truck. Offering a higher level of care for the community came in the form of the installation of automatic defibrillators in the town and village halls, the community center, senior center and all the ambulances. One project that had been started under Wing's tenure and will continue with McCullough is the consolidation of Brockport's five departments into a single fire district. "For upwards of 125 years, the five companies have served a tremendous purpose for the village, but as times and the environment changes we have to look at streamlining," McCullough said. "Being all one company makes sense and I hope that in 2004 that project will be completed." McCullough has been a full time firefighter with the City of Rochester for the past 15 years. "A friend of mine back in high school told me about being a volunteer firefighter, I checked it out because I was looking for something with a little bit of excitement and a challenge and this career, both paid and volunteer fits the bill," he said. When asked why, after almost 20 years with the department, he chose to run for chief, McCullough said it was a natural progression from fireman to lieutenant to captain and, finally, chief. "As you progress through the ranks, you develop ideas that you want to see implemented and being chief offers the opportunity to see them come to life," he said. McCullough said he and former chief Wing have been close friends for years and many of their goals for the department meshed. "We accomplished a lot of things and covered a lot of ground together," he said. On the agenda for McCullough will be the process of finalizing the details of setting up a training trailer for the department. Presently the firefighters go to a training site on Scottsville Road, but with grant funds that were received, Brockport will have its own training trailer which will be on a piece of land Allied Foods set aside for them. "We'll still attend the training facility on Scottsville Road, but this training trailer will make it more convenient for a lot of our volunteers." Bottom line for McCullough: "Get us a bit more organized, take on new projects and keep looking toward the future." |
