\u201cI\u2019m 60 years old now. I think it\u2019s time for someone with newer ideas, more modern ideas to take over the department and move it forward\u201d, stated Jim Beckwith, longtime Tyrone Fire Chief.
\nBeckwith made the announcement that he\u2019d be retiring during the Tyrone Borough Council meeting earlier this week. Beckwith has been Tyrone\u2019s fire chief for 28 years; however, he has been with the department since 1961.
\nBeckwith says he intends to stay active in the department even after his last day as fire chief at the end of the year.
\n\u201cI\u2019m a member of the \u2018Hookies\u2019 and I plan to stay there as long as my health permits\u201d, Beckwith told The Daily Herald after Monday\u2019s meeting.
\nHe even joked he\u2019d stay involved as long as his wife didn\u2019t throw him out of the house. Beckwith added he\u2019d be a driver and do what ever he could to help the department out.
\nFire Chief Beckwith told Tyrone Borough Council he\u2019d draft a formal letter of resignation and have it ready to present to council at the next meeting. The effective date of his resignation will be December 31st. Beckwith also informed council of the procedure for replacing him, indicating that the two fire companies would submit the names of interested applicants and then council make a decision on who should take over the position starting on the first day of 2004.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not that our department has come to a stand still by any means. I think after 28 years it\u2019s time for a change of leadership,\u2019 Beckwith said in reiterating his reasons for retiring at year\u2019s end.
\nHis announcement was greeted with reserved shock followed by a \u201cthank you\u201d from Mayor Pat Stoner and a round of applause for the years of effort Chief Beckwith gave to the Tyrone Fire department.
\n\u201cWe will miss his expertise, his attitude and we greatly appreciated it,\u201d said Mayor Patricia Stoner. \u201cHe was the borough\u2019s emergency management person. He provided the history and we are grateful and appreciative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m 60 years old now. I think it\u2019s time for someone with newer ideas, more modern ideas to take over the department and move it forward\u201d, stated Jim Beckwith, longtime Tyrone Fire Chief. Beckwith made the announcement that he\u2019d be retiring during the Tyrone Borough Council meeting earlier this week. Beckwith has been Tyrone\u2019s fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}