MUKILTEO – The city’s fire chief for the past 12 years is leaving the city to take a job in Texas.
Jack Colbath, 59, said he’ll be closer to his family in Florida.
“With this cold weather and this old body, it’s time for us to bid adieu,” he said.
Colbath will work for the Pearland Fire Department and help it move from an all-volunteer force to one with paid firefighters.
Colbath’s resignation becomes effective Feb. 2.
Assistant Chief Mike Springer, a former chief of the Edmonds Fire Department, will serve as interim chief until a replacement can be found, Mayor Joe Marine said.
There’s no deadline to find a replacement, Marine said. He’s not yet sure how widely the net will be cast for a replacement.
Springer, 57, who was hired as an assistant chief in Mukilteo in 2001, said he’s interested in the chief’s job.
Under Colbath, Mukilteo’s fire department grew from 11 paid firefighters and more than 20 volunteers to 17 paid firefighters and medics and more than 50 volunteers, he said.
The fire department budget, set at $3.7 million for 2007, “probably almost doubled” during his tenure, Colbath said.
Colbath said the biggest development was the hiring of five firefighter-paramedics over the past two years, after voters approved a six-year, $4.6 million levy in 2004 to beef up the city’s paramedic service. The sixth and final firefighter-paramedic is scheduled to be hired this year.
Colbath began his firefighting career in his native New Jersey. Nearly 30 years ago, he moved to Pasco and worked in the fire department there, then in south Snohomish County’s Fire District 1.
He rose to the rank of captain there, and worked on loan to Mukilteo after the city annexed Harbour Pointe in 1991. He became Mukilteo’s chief in 1994.
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