Spokane County Fire District 4 has a new chief, but he is a familiar face to those living in the sprawling district north of the Spokane city limits.
Assistant Chief Bill Neckels has taken over the position of fire chief while the former chief, Randy Johnson, is staying in the district to take on an executive officer role.
Johnson will handle special projects that will include grant writing and capital projects, Neckels said.
“Randy’s role now is really to focus on special projects that steal your time away from actually running the department,” he said. “Really, I think the critical piece of Randy’s role is grant opportunities and looking for revenue streams.”
The change happened as the district talked about what it would do when Johnson, who has been with the district for 10 years, left his role. The district had two assistant chiefs, Neckels and Howard Johnson.
“We looked at the skill sets of the three of us and restructured a bit,” he said.