Howard Scott has not just been a neighbor of the Cole County Fire Protection District, but he's also been the fire department's first chaplain — a role he hopes someone else will step up and fill in his retirement.
After today, Scott has one Sunday left as pastor of Highway 54 Church of Christ on Greenbrier Drive, which is just around a curve of the road from the Cole County Fire Protection District's administrative building on Monticello Road. Scott lives across the street from the church.
"I'll get one Christmas sermon in Dec. 1, and that will be it," he said, adding next will come a move to eastern Tennessee.
He grew up in Miami, Oklahoma, and moved to Cole County in 2008 to be pastor of Highway 54 Church of Christ.
He became the fire district's chaplain — a volunteer role, unpaid other than a small travel reimbursement — "kind of accidentally" around 2012, he said.