Fire district shifts to interim plan

Following interviews with the two finalist candidates for the position of Cloquet Area Fire District chief, members of the CAFD board opted to not hire either candidate, citing the difficulty of finding someone with the skill set to lead the district as both CEO and fire chief.

Board chair Jim Langenbrunner said the board’s succession committee is shifting its attention to coming up with an interim plan to cover the fire chief position, as current fire chief Kevin Schroeder is retiring at the end of June.

“Kevin is a very difficult person to replace,” Langenbrunner told the Pine Knot News Wednesday.

Langenbrunner, a former (and the first) CAFD fire chief, said the key difficulty in finding someone to lead is the nature of the fire district.

“It is the only one in the state,” Langenbrunner said. “The district runs like a small city; it covers close to 22,000 people. Most fire chiefs are responsible for a fire department in a city. This is a regional approach, so it is an administrative position.”

Once the interim plan is in place, Langenbrunner said the board will move on to conducting the candidate search again.