www.lexipol.com 844-312-9500 THE CHALLENGE The City of Jefferson (GA) Fire Department (JFD) has changed a lot in the 33 years Chief Mark Duke has been a member. “In 1985, when I came on, it was an all- volunteer department,” he says. “Most of our members lived within 1/2-mile of the fire station, and many of them worked in downtown Jefferson.” But as Jefferson grew, the volunteer firefighters moved and took jobs farther out, making it difficult to respond quickly to calls. Starting in the late 1990s, the changes came quickly. JFD built two new stations, replaced its apparatus fleet and hired its first paid members. Today, the department has a unique structure: two full-time career employees (Chief Duke and a community risk reduction officer), 30 part-time paid firefighter

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