White County's new fire chief, Mike LeFevre, was sworn in this week by Public Safety Director David Murphy.
LeFevre, of Hall County, is a veteran firefighter and has worked part-time in White County since 2017 and has remained a crucial part of the county’s COVID-19 response, Murphy says.
Already, LeFevre has shared news of the addition of new firefighters to cover the area of Highway 129 North, improving response times to the area of White County High School.
“The goals are unending, I can tell you that right now,” LeFevre said. “It's a growing community. Everybody seems to be moving north. And there's such a beautiful county here in White County. And people are, I think they're finding out that we're here. And so, with that growth comes a lot of other unseen things. We've got to look at fire protection, new constructions, waterways, ways to protect these people, and we're going to have to grow with the community and we need to be ahead of the curve. So that's our goal right off the bat is try to be ahead of what is coming be prepared.”
LeFevre said he plans to work with Murphy to build on the already solid department.
“I'm just here to add on to what has already taken place,” LeFevre said. “And they had already started so many things. And, fortunately, I'm getting to see some of the rewards of what they started. We got a lot of growing to do, but we were built on solid rock and when you got a solid foundation, and we have that here, Director Murphy and some of the previous chiefs that were here, really laid a great foundation for me to build onto, so I see a lot of growth in the fire services, and we got a lot of areas to cover.”
LeFevre already received one item that was on the department’s wish list: additional paid personnel.
“Fortunately, it just was approved this week we're able to bring on two new firefighters,” LeFevre said. “We're planning right now to start opening Station 6 full time – or as much as we can as staffing would allow but our target area is Station 6.”
LeFevre said he is very thankful for the two additional firefighter positions approved by the county commission but said he and county leaders recognize there will be future needs to add more.
“It will help tremendously,” LeFevre said. “I can tell you that we need a whole lot more but we are a growing department so you have to walk before you can run and so that's kind of the attitude that I have. But as long as we're making progress, I'm excited.”
