Strawberry Point Fire Department Resuming Services with New Chief

The Strawberry Point fire department will resume services Thursday night – with a new chief.

On July 11th, the Strawberry Point Fire Department announced on their Facebook page that they would be out of service immediately due to lack of support from the mayor and city council. The members voluntarily turned in their pagers. Surrounding agencies have been providing coverage to the Strawberry Point area since that time.

Last Wednesday, the Strawberry Point City Council was given three options on how to move forward with the situation – reappoint Chief Nic Stelken, not reappoint Chief Stelken or appoint Stelken to a three-month term and have the City monitor improvements. The Council voted 5 to 1 against renewing Stelken’s contract. 

City Administrator Deno Andrews said that if the council voted no to re-appointing Stelken and the fire department chose not to go back into service, he would be forced to expel everyone in the fire department who is refusing to do their duty due to city code.

On Wednesday, Andrews told KMCH the City was currently in active and productive discussions with Fire Department leadership. 

On Thursday afternoon, Andrews announced on the City’s Facebook page that as of 6 pm Thursday night, the Strawberry Point Fire Department would be back in service, with Dean Courtnage as Acting Chief. Andrews thanks everyone involved in the discussions for their commitment and diligence during this time.