Kevin Cremer, who has served as the Festus fire chief as a volunteer since 2016, no longer will receive a small stipend, but instead will soon be paid a full-time salary for the job.
Mayor Sam Richards promoted Cremer to the full-time, paid position at the Sept. 25 City Council meeting.
He officially takes over the job on Oct. 14, when he will see his $12,000 stipend for serving as volunteer chief increase to a $61,100 annual salary for the full-time position.
“He’s been doing a great job as chief in a volunteer position,” Richards said. “That’s why we offered him the (full-time) position.”
Cremer, 46, of Festus said he already has given notice to leave his current job as a dispatcher in St. Louis County.
He is the city’s second full-time chief. However, his predecessor, Chuck Boyer, who became the first Festus full-time chief in 2012, was classified as a volunteer in that position and instead was paid $48,921 for the full-time position of fire inspector. In addition, Boyer was paid a $5,000 yearly stipend as the volunteer chief.
The fire department no longer has a fire inspector because that job is now part of the city’s Planning and Building Department, Boyer said.
Cremer was named interim chief when Boyer resigned the position on Nov. 1, 2016. Then, the council took the “interim” out of his title on March 8, 2017.
After Boyer resigned as chief, he took a leave of absence for a few months and rejoined the department as a volunteer. He is now the assistant fire chief, a volunteer position.
Cremer said he’s thrilled with his new job.
“It means I’ll have more time committed to the department,” he said. “It’s just incredible. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
No council vote was necessary to promote Boyer to the new full-time, paid job, Richards said.
“I have the authority to appoint for fire chief and police chief,” he said.
Council members, however, said they are on board with the change, City Administrator Greg Camp said.
“We had the council’s support,” he said. “There was no question.”
Camp said he believes Cremer is the right person to continue leading the department as it expands following voter passage in August of Proposition Public Safety, a 1-cent sales tax increase to fund improvements to the city’s police and fire departments and dispatching services.
When promoting the proposition, city officials told the public that some of the money would be used to add a full-time, paid chief and three additional full-time, paid firefighter positions to the department, which already had three full-time, paid firefighters. The department hasn’t added the three extra full-time, paid firefighters yet, Boyer said Tuesday.
The department also has one part-time, paid position filled on a rotating basis. The department also has about 15 volunteer firefighters, Cremer said.
The Festus Fire Department serves an approximately 5-square-mile area in Festus, plus about 4 square miles in the surrounding area outside the city limits.