The Russellville City Council appointed Justin Green as the new City Fire Marshal during their meeting July 1. Photo by Matt Wilson.

By Matt Wilson

For the FCT

The Russellville City Council appointed Justin Green as the new City Fire Marshal during their meeting July 1.

Green has been a firefighter in Russellville since 1998 and said he looks forward to the new challenges and expectations of the promotion.

“I’m looking forward to taking on the responsibilities that this new position requires and I am really looking forward to interacting with the public,” Green said.

Green said he doesn’t mind talking to people and, according to his mother, he has never met a stranger.

“My wife and co-workers can vouch for that,” Green said. “Everywhere I go it takes a little bit longer because I see people I know.”

Green said he got involved with firefighting after some of his friends talked him into it and he has never looked back.

“When I was younger I wanted to be an astronaut, a lawyer, or a doctor,” Green said.

“Then I got started working as a dispatcher for the police and moved on as a volunteer firefighter.

“I went to my first training fire over on Madison (Street) and that got me hooked. I never looked back.”

As the city fire marshal, Green said his roles will include making sure businesses operate under fire codes and helping those businesses meet and remain under the fire codes.

“My main role is to protect the citizens,” Green said.

“There are a lot of codes, but I will be working with the businesses and citizens to make sure that we are all on the same page.”

Green also plans on helping the city lower insurance rates and implement new technology in the fire fighting and prevention activities.

“The ISO is always changing and our ISO is currently a four, but we are close to a three,” Green said.

“I want to work with the citizens and business owners to get some good pre-plans in place so we can make sure everyone is safe and hopefully lower some insurance rates.

“I also want to continue using technology to make things easier and safer for everyone.

“We are going to try and start loading our data into the cloud server so our firefighters have access to that information and I want to get an interactive map for them to access too.”

One of the fire marshal’s responsibilities is investigating fires and Green said that is sometimes one of his favorite parts of the job.

“Obviously I prefer it when fires are prevented, but when they aren’t, it has to be investigated and I enjoy that,” Green said.

“It is the second most fun part of the job behind talking to and teaching the kids. It’s like putting a puzzle together.”

Russellville Fire Chief Joe Mansell said he is looking forward to working alongside Green and believes he will do a great job in this position.

“After Steve Thornton’s retirement in February, there have been some changes to the ISO including points that are tied to the fire marshal’s division,” Mansell said.

“The fire marshal’s job is a very important job within our department and this just makes it even that much more important to have a good person in this position.

“I appreciate the mayor and city council for taking this appointment seriously. Justin has worked for the fire department for a long time and I believe he will do a great job as fire marshal.

“Steve did a great job in this position and I believe Justin will hit the ground running and continue to build on the work Steve did.”

Green’s appointment as the city’s new fire marshal was one of several personnel decisions the Russellville City Council has made in the last month.

Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said the added personnel in his department was much-needed.

“I am glad the mayor and city council were able to provide us with this much-needed increase in man power,” Hargett said.

“It was something that needed to be done so we could better serve our community.

“We will now be able to assign someone full time to deal with litter and compliance issues, which will help alleviate some problems and complaints we have had in this area.”

The recent personnel decisions include:

>Russellville Fire Department

•Grant Tarascou hired as a Firefighter 1

>Russellville Police Department

• Chad Sheffield promoted to lieutenant

• Jesse McKinney promoted to sergeant

• Michael Miller promoted to sergeant

• John Fike hired as a full-time dispatcher

• Nathan Weeks hired as a patrol officer

• Dustin Don Terry hired as a patrol officer

• Andrew Shawn Nix hired as a patrol officer