A new leader is taking the reins of the Pella Fire Department. Randy Bogaard was officially elected to a new term by his fellow firefighters and the Pella City Council. He has been the Assistant Chief for the past year and was previously Captain from 2010-2020, and has been with the Pella Fire Department since 1984. Bogaard says he aims to continue what is working well and is working to adjust to the new responsibilities.

“It definitely changes my outlook on things even more,” he says. “When I became captain, I told everybody then and there was a bit of a transition in this, that role changed from just worrying about me and myself and my job on the fire ground, to suddenly, everyone else.”

“That is magnified now as chief–the whole operation is on me, whether I’m there or not. It reflects on me and my leadership, so safety continues to be number one and we want all of our guys arrive safely and go home safely as well, and hopefully get the job done in the meantime.”

Current Chief Doug Van Gorkom is stepping down from the leadership role he has held since 2005, but will remain with the department. Van Gorkom says he had been thinking about his potential departure for some time but was waiting for the right time for himself to leave and the right people to be in place.

“I’ve thought about it now for a few years already, and there has to be a time when you step down from a job and let the younger people get into it and I feel that over the past few years, I’ve kind of watched how things were happening and I was trying to put a chess game together so to speak, because this is my life and I’ve done it for right at 50 years, and it’s my love–I think the world of this place and the men who are on the fire department, and I wanted it to be a very smooth transition,” Van Gorkom says.

Hear more about the transition of the Pella Fire Chief on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.