Alpena City Fire Chief Bill Forbush Looking Forward to Retirement
Alpena City Fire Chief Bill Forbush has announced his upcoming retirement with his last day being December 15.
When he arrived at the department 12 years ago, he wanted to serve the community has best he could, and he, along with his fellow firefighters and other city officials, believe he’s done just that. Chief Forbush has a vast amount of memories he’ll take with him when he steps down and thanks the community, the city, and his family who he says has always been very supportive during his time has chief. One of his main reasons for retiring is so he can spend more time with them.
However, while he’s retiring from the Alpena City Fire Department, he will still be active in the community and provide any help he can. “I’m still going to be at Presque Isle Township, I’ll be with northern chiefs, Michigan Chiefs, the EMS Coordinating Committee in Lansing,” he said. “Some of those things I’ve been doing for 30 years and I can’t stop now. This is my 40th year in emergency services.”
Taking over as chief will be current Deputy Chief Rob Edmonds. When Forbush arrived, there wasn’t a solid system to promote from within, but with this transition, both are confident in Edmonds’s abilities to take the reins and do a great job for the city of Alpena. “Obviously we’re looking at some things that maybe we can do just a little bit different,” Edmonds said. “Not that we’ve been doing anything wrong within the department, but we’re just looking at making some changes just operationally, see if we can streamline some things, make the department a little bit better, trying to improve morale and some conditions around the stations and get back on our feet a little bit and move forward.”
Edmonds will become the Alpena City fire chief on November 30, so both he and Forbush will serve in the same position until Forbush’s final day.
