The Interlakes Volunteer Fire Department Chief’s hand was forced to leave as struggles to extinguish growing problems continue.
The issues not only stemmed from the disagreements between the CRD and IVFD, but it seems to also be plaguing the department behind the scenes.
“There were some issues on training. There’s some members, not all members, but some members that didn’t agree with the current College of the Rockies program, the way it was being tested. I didn’t agree with that, I thought the test exams were fair.” says Todd Schley, former Fire Chief.
“Couple other issues, the one hall preferred to train by themselves, I was trying to get us to be more of a team environment.”
Schley had only been the Chief for around a year, where when he started, was warned about the fractures, but believed he could help fix it.
It later got to a point where the CRD brought in a third party to assess the situation, and come up with a solution.
While a solution was made, Schley disagreed as he thought it undermined the authority of the Chief, so he handed in his resignation.
The CRD will be bringing in an interim Chief and later have a full time Chief, which Schley worries is just going to repeat history.
Schley’s plans now are to fish, spend time with family, and go to school to upgrade his paramedic license.
He hopes that the department will get through this, but says the team couldn’t see the forest through the trees.
Schley’s resignation comes into effect today (February 15th).