New Defiance Fire Chief Chosen

Defi­ance has a new fire chief. City offi­cials chose a for­mer fire chief to fill the posi­tion which opened in Jan­u­ary.

Bill Wilkins, who served as fire chief from 1999–2006 will now take the job that opened in Jan­u­ary when David Schmaltz announced his plans to take a job in Bat­tle Creek, Mich. Most recently, Wilkins worked for the state fire marshal’s office in code enforce­ment.

He begins his new job in Defi­ance on May 19th and will earn $69,000 a year.

There were three can­di­dates who were up for the job. The other two final­ists were Fred­er­ick Welsh of Syl­va­nia and Defi­ance Assis­tant Fire Chief Tim Bowling.