Blackledge to retire as Fire Chief in 2025

By Randy Bell

Fire Chief Jeff Blackledge will retire at the end of next June.

     Jeff Blackledge says it was never his goal to become Clinton’s fire chief.  But that’s the job he was given in 2016.

     “It’s been a ride,” Blackledge said after announcing his retirement plans in a letter to Mayor Phil Fisher and the Board of Aldermen on September 25.  “I’ve enjoyed it.”

     The decision to step down is something the chief had been considering off and on for the last six months.

     “I had been praying about it and trying to figure out what I should do,” Blackledge said.

     But it was someone’s else retirement decision which prompted him to make his.

     “When the mayor announced that he was not running again, my answer came to me,” said Blackledge. “It was time for me to retire and let somebody else come in, maybe get some younger blood in there to run the department.”

     And, since announcing his retirement, Blackledge said he feels “like a load has been taken off my chest.”

     The chief admits that his unsuccessful efforts this summer to convince the Board to give Clinton firefighters a $10,000 across the board pay raise did play a role in his decision to step down, but “it was not the deciding factor.”

     His retirement will be effective June 30, 2025, capping off forty years of service to the Clinton Fire Department—the first nine as a volunteer.

     “The chief’s job was never something that was on my horizon.  A lot of guys come in and say, ‘I’m going to be the chief one day.’  I never thought that.”

     But what Blackledge calls “the opportunity of a lifetime” presented itself, and he decided to act on it.

     Asked what he considers to be his biggest accomplishment as chief, there’s no hesitation.

     “Getting Station 4 built under budget,” he said.  “The bids kept coming in way over budget.  By working with the city attorney and the state, we were able to secure some financing where we could afford to build Station 4.  When I came in as chief, I had to hit the ground running, so to speak, to get that station built.”

     Station 4, opened in December, 2019, was needed to provide adequate fire protection to areas of north Clinton which had recently been annexed into the City.

     Fisher has high praise for Blackledge.

     “The City is a lot better off because he was there,” the mayor said.  “He was instrumental in getting [Clinton’s] fire rating lowered.”

     Following the municipal elections in 2025, it’ll be up to the new Board to name the next fire chief.

     “You can’t really fill a position until it’s empty, anyway,” Fisher points out.   But he indicated that the City could start advertising for the position next June, and the newly-elected Board could begin interviewing candidates after taking office in July.