LOWELL -- A former Rogers firefighter started last week as the city's new fire chief, marking the third change in city leadership this year.
Mayor Chris Moore said he hired Pete Melnicki after Mike Morris' retirement.
Tim Kuth took over as police chief in April after Randy Harvey's retirement.
Moore began serving as mayor in January after being elected over Eldon Long, who served two four-year terms.
Morris had been chief since 2008 and worked for the department for 25 years.
Morris said a good leader knows when it's time to leave so someone else can come in with new ideas. His last day was Tuesday.
Melnicki's first day was April 29. He worked for Rogers for 12 years and was a captain for six of those years.
"As a station captain, I felt like I made a difference to my crew, and it was natural for me to move up and increase my sphere of influence," he said.
Melnicki said, although fire departments are by nature exceptionally reactive, he would like to see Lowell be more proactive in teaching fire prevention.
"Kitchen fires is always a big one," he said, adding every house should have working smoke alarms. He added everyone should avoid using space heaters, especially in children's bedrooms.
"We're not going to make any earth-shattering changes right off the bat," he said.
Melnicki expects to have his master's degree in organizational leadership next year and has participated in the National Fire Academy's managing officer and executive fire officer programs at the National Fire Academy.
The managing officer program is a multiyear curriculum that introduces emerging emergency service leaders to risk reduction and adaptive leadership, while the executive program is for senior fire officers and focuses on how to lead when dealing with difficult or unique problems within communities, according to the National Fire Academy's website.
"There's truly no better feeling in the world than saving a child or a parent or working a cardiac arrest and someone comes back and sees their family again," Melnicki said.
Lowell has 27 full-time firefighters and opened its second fire station about a year ago at Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park, west of Exit 78 off Interstate 49. The city's population grew about 30 percent from 7,040 people in 2007 to 9,200 people in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Metro on 05/06/2019