After three decades with the Oxford Fire Department, Dave Creech’s employment status is going to change July 1.
Last week, the township board voted 7-0 to appoint Creech as the full-time assistant chief.
He will be paid an annual salary of $58,000, receive full healthcare benefits, be provided a vehicle for his official and personal use and receive up to 15 paid vacation days along with 12 paid holidays.
Creech will not receive any overtime pay or be part of the Municipal Employees Retirement System (MERS), however, he will be eligible to participate in a deferred compensation plan in which the township makes matching contributions not to exceed 6 percent of his total salary.
His employment contract will run through Dec. 31, 2018.
Creech has been a paid-on-call member of the department since March 1986. He was promoted to assistant chief in 1998.
‘He’s been here a long time and he’s done a good job,? said township Supervisor Bill Dunn.
Fire Chief Pete Scholz recommended the assistant chief position be changed from paid-on-call to full-time because the department’s management requirements ‘continue to increase each year? and he needs some help.
‘Multiple meetings, (training sessions), personnel management, call volume and other administrative duties make it difficult to be in multiple places at the same time,? Scholz wrote in a Feb. 3 memo to the township board.
Dunn noted he called surrounding fire departments to see what Creech’s peers had to say about him and he heard nothing but good things. The consensus was ‘we would be lucky to have him,? the supervisor said.
Creech won’t start his new job until the summer because he’s currently employed with General Motors, where he’s worked since 1978. He plans to retire this spring.
The addition of Creech, who won’t be part of the firefighters union, will increase the department’s full-time staff to 16 firefighters including the chief. Two full-time firefighters were added on Jan. 1.