Late last month, Anderson County Fire Coordinator, Cruz Gillespie, attended the annual Kansas Fire Association Conference. He got to learn a lot of things from fire chiefs throughout the state of Kansas. One hundred-thirty chiefs attended the conference. Gillespie says this was the first time he had attended the conference and hopes to stay in contact with some of the amazing people he met during the conference, and enjoyed several keynote speakers.
What most people didn’t know, is that he had nominated Garnett Rural and City Fire Chief, Wes Skillman, for the Fire Chief of the Year Award. He says Skillman works full-time and still puts in countless hours at the fire station training, cleaning, writing grants, and much more.
Skillman has been a firefighter since he was old enough to get on the fire department. He cares truly about his citizens and his community. Gillespie reports that skillman was not the award winner at the conference but did make the top three. Salina Fire Chief, Shane Pearson took home the honor as Chief of the Year.
If you happen to see Chief Skillman around town, give him a big thank you for being such a great leader to the community.
