City bids fond farewell to retiring Fire Chief Mark Miller

 

[May 04, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

On Friday, the city of Lincoln Fire Department honored Chief Mark Miller as he prepares to take his retirement. Miller had tendered his resignation earlier in the year announcing he would retire effective with the new fiscal year for the city.

To ease the transition from former to new, the city promoted Assistant Chief Bob Dunovsky earlier this year. While Dunovsky will not be officially sworn into his position until next Monday, May 6th, he has been working in tandem with Miller to assure that the department will feel little impact at the official change of command.

On Friday, Lincoln College catered a meal for the group of guests who had been invited by the city to attend. Among those in attendance, there were several ‘blasts from the past’ as former mayors, aldermen, and city clerk staff were in attendance. There were also in attendance former firefighters including at least one former chief whom Miller served under as he went through the ranks.

As guests visited with Miller and each other, there was a lot of reminiscing going on. Some were sporting photos of a younger Mark Miller and telling stories of experiences they had all had together.

Many of the guests brought best wishes in greeting cards, and a stack accumulated on the table near the cakes.

Retiring Chief Mark Miller receives a plaque from soon to be Chief Dunovsky.

After everyone had enjoyed their lunch, Dunovsky called the room to order and presented Miller with a plaque in recognition of his years of service.

He began with a thank you to Lincoln College for the excellent food. He added that he had received a lot of help in organization and planning the event from the clerk’s office staff and thanked Peggy Bateman and her staff for all their efforts.

Keeping it short, he noted that the reason for the gathering was to acknowledge the retirement of Miller and thank him for his years of service to the city. He then presented a plaque to Miller commemorating his time with the department from September of 1990 to May of 2019.

Dunovsky then turned the floor over to Miller to say a few words. Miller also kept his speech relatively short. He noted some of the firefighters in the room who he had served with at the earliest points of his career, many who are now also retired.

Miller said that on this, his official departing day, he had started his shift by mopping the floors. He said he remembered well being the rookie firefighter in the department and as he started serving the city, he served by mopping the floors. He said “and I wanted to mop the floor today. As a fire chief and working through the ranks I have always tried to remember where I came from, working hard and treating the guys well.”

Miller noted his first fire chief Rich Kuhn was in the building, and said Kuhn had been a great leader and had gotten him off to a good start. He also remembered Keith Rigdon who had talked Miller into coming to the fire house and seeing what it would be like, then giving him a pager and a coat and saying “when that goes off show up here. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but it got me started off to an awesome career and I love it.”

Retiring Chief Mark Miller checks out the frosting on one of his two retirement cakes.

He noted that as a chief, he relied on a lot of people and he expressed appreciation and said that the staff throughout the city made up a great family.

Miller continued, “When you become the fire chief you wonder why, when you really loved the job you started with. It is because you want to make sure that the guys you have coming on enjoy the job and have the tools they need to work with, that’s why you do it.”

Miller would go on to remember some specific incidents, where the department was working with the police departments as well as with the street departments in times of storms. He jokingly said that he still owed Building and Zoning Officer Wes Woodhall “one” and that the day was yet to come when Miller would get Woodhall in a “stinky one.” Miller went on to explain that he had joined Woodhall on a residential visit where they had to enter a home that contained 65 cats. He said that was not pleasant.

Miller went on to talk about some of the unusual situations his department has been involved in with the Building Office and other departments in the city. He noted the home collapse on Tenth Street a few weeks ago, and said when they all got there, “We just kind of shook our heads and said what do we do next? It was not something that you see every day. And, that is the nice thing about the fire service, it presents you with something different every day, you just work through it and get it done.”

Miller remembered others in the room that had been involved in his early years and his time in the academy and spoke about friendships that have lasted since those early days.

Miller gave a nod to the Lincoln Rural Fire Department, many of whom were also in attendance including Chief Chris Buse. He also noted that he had intentions to stay involved in firefighting and would be serving as a volunteer at Lincoln Rural.

He also spoke about the evolution within the fire fighting industry and recalled some of the earlier trucks didn’t even have roofs on the cabs. Noting the brand new fire truck sitting outside the station, he spoke about the newer modern innovations in firefighting.

Miller said he wanted to close by thanking everyone for coming and invited all to enjoy the desserts that included cake and cookies for everyone. He then had the privilege of taking the first piece of his retirement cake.

As he served himself with wife Amy by his side, Miller said that he also wanted to give much thanks to Amy and his sons Evan and Wyatt for their support and understanding of his choice of career. He said that Amy finally got used to the ‘Fire house clock’ and explained that more often than not he would tell Amy he would be home in 20 minutes and four hours later he would show up.

In April in anticipation of his retirement, Chief Miller used his March Department Report given to the city council as a tool to share his memories of his career. It was a good read, and today, LDN will repost that report for everyone.

To get a glimpse of Millers history read Lincoln Fire Chief Mark Miller remembers his history with the department - Pdf

LDN offers our sincerest congratulations to Chief Miller on his retirement and we thank him as well for his dedicated career to the city and its citizens.

[Nila Smith]