Bucksport’s fire chief is retiring next month. Town Manager Susan Lessard said Friday that Craig Bowden was retiring for health reasons. But Bowden said Sunday that after 36 years with the department, the last 18 as chief, he was ready to retire. Bowden’s last official day on the job will be April 9, but he has been largely out of work on medical leave since he underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in December. He hasn’t been on full duty, but he has done some work at home helping develop grants for his department, Lessard said. “It is a significant retirement for the community,” Lessard said Friday. “We will be figuring out how to move forward for that over the next couple of weeks.”