October 6, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
Eight years after creating the first position, the city has added a second full time paid firefighter to the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted 4-0 to hire Dalton Roberts upon the recommendation of Chief Charlie Parker. Roberts has been a volunteer member of the department for over six years.
Chief Parker said Roberts was one of two candidates for the new position and recommended after a review process.
“We had an interview review with our fire department officers and Shawn Jacobs, our police and fire department commissioner. We had an interview session with both of the applicants and the result was to move forward with Mr. Roberts. We went through a pretty good review process. Part of the reason it has taken so long since July is we had to develop a new set of rules on how to handle this process going forward because we hope this is not the last firefighter we hire. We have the process down now. We are trying to draw from inside the department if we can first to help build our volunteer force to give them a chance to further their firefighter career. We also want to make it as fair as possible because we don’t want to lose any volunteers due to hurt feelings. We want to keep it fair in making our choices and we were confident that in this case Mr. Roberts was a good choice,” said Chief Parker.
According to the city budget, the salary for Roberts’ position is $40,876 per year including salary and benefits.
Chief Parker was the first member of the department hired as a full time city firefighter in 2012.
Every year during budget time, Chief Parker petitions the mayor and aldermen to fund more full time paid firefighter positions.
Members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department and their years of service as of January were as follows: Jeff Prisock-1 year, Brent Keenan-1 year, Shannon Smith-1 year, Andrew Cooper-Rookie 1 year, Kayla Williams-Photographer/Auxiliary 1 year, Brenda Soto-Rookie 2 years, Dillon Hicks-Rookie 2 years, Caleb London-3 years, Ryan Herron: 4 years, Seth Wright-4 years, Kim Johnson-4 years, Bradley Johnson- 6 years, Dalton Roberts-6 years, C.J. Tramel- 6 years, Shawn Jacobs- Auxiliary 7 years, Becky Atnip- 7 years, Cory Killian-9 years, Glen Lattimore-12 years, Stephanee Wright-14 years, Gary Johnson-15 years, James Randall Hunt-15 years, Wallace Caldwell- Chaplain 16 years, Lieutenant Kevin Adcock- 21 years, William (Wink) Brown-22 years, Greg Bess-Photographer/Auxiliary 25 years, Lieutenant John Poss-30 years, Captain Jeff Wright-35 years, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale-35 years, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell-40 years, Lieutenant Danny Poss-40 years, and Chief Charlie Parker-40 years.