Halls names new fire chief

The Halls Board of Mayor and Aldermen has named Jason Winchester as fire chief.

Winchester, a member of the Halls Fire Department for almost four years, had the honor of being nominated and voted in by the firemen he will be leading in his new position. Halls Mayor Trent McManus polled firemen in the Halls department and upheld their decision with the Oct. 1 appointment.

“I was nominated through firemen,” said Winchester. “Me and another gentlemen, Bradley Adams, were nominated. I was voted in by firemen and appointed by the mayor. I’m just glad that they can trust me enough to be there and do that. And I appreciate the mayor and the board having faith in me on this. We’ll try to do our best.”

Winchester said that as he leads the HFD, he will continue turning to the firemen for their opinions, utilizing what he feels is the department’s greatest strength - it’s ability to work together.

“When I took the office, it used to be the chief made all the decisions,” said Winchester. “That’s one of the things that I really wanted to change in the department. Now we kind of do everything on a voting deal. If someone brings up and idea and they can get a second, we’ll vote on it. It’s not just one person making all the decisions.”

Named Halls Fireman of the Year in 2005, Winchester is also a member and trainer for the Community Emergency Response Team, and has been trained in bomb detection and several Homeland Security programs.

Improvements he plans to make to the department include more community involvement and informative tours of businesses in Halls. By allowing firemen to visit local buildings, information can be gathered to better prepare firemen for emergency situations.

“You look at a metal building and you don’t have any idea what you are going into unless you’ve been in that building before,” said Winchester, who said that the department recently received a grant to supply new equipment for Halls fire fighters. “(The grant put) 80% of the firemen in brand new equipment. We are going to work on more grants for the fire department and the community and bring our department up to as high a standard as it can get.”

Winchester and his wife, Donna, have two children, Alexis and Connor.