By Chris Moore

chris.moore@panews.com

 

NEDERLAND — After Monday’s City Council meeting, Terry Morton was able to remove “acting” from his title as the council voted unanimously to name him the Nederland fire chief.

The city council voted Morton be the acting fire chief in August while former chief Gary Collins was on approved leave due to illness. Collins retired at the end of January.

Morton began his career as a volunteer with the department in 1982 while working as a line mechanic at JK Chevrolet

“My background was as a mechanic,” Morton said. “I got a degree in diesel mechanics back in the early ‘80s. All of that stuff has changed and is all computerized now. It’s passed me by.

“My goal, at that point in life, was to work in the oil field. I wanted to work offshore. A friend of mine did that and loved it.”

Morton said next thing he knew, the oil industry collapsed overnight.

“They dragged all of the rigs off the gulf and parked them in Sabine Pass,” he said. “I graduated from the program. I couldn’t buy a job in the field. There were mechanics that were very experienced that were getting laid off. Somebody new, out of school wasn’t getting a job.”

Morton said the more he volunteered at the department, the more he grew to love it.

“I started talking to the fire chief that was here then, Chief (Mike) Lovelady,” Morton said. “I told him I might be interested in getting into the department. He offered me a job in 1985. I was actually offered the job on my birthday in August.”

In 1991, a position as shift captain opened up and Morton was promoted to fill the vacancy.

“I was going back to school and was working on my fire protection and technology degree,” he said. “Chief Lovelady saw potential there for me. I was kind of young for a captain. I was 28 or 29 years old. It was young at the time. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon, but it was then.”

Morton held that position for 15 years until Lovelady retired in 2006.

“Chief Collins took (Lovelady’s) spot and it opened up an assistant chief spot,” Morton said. “Collins came to me and asked me to do that job, and I accepted.”

Morton went on to get his fire investigator’s certification, arson investigator’s certification and completed the police academy to become a peace officer.

“I had a lot of job duties then,” he said. “At the time, I had to do the code enforcement. I had to go out and tell people about high grass, stagnant water, trash and stuff like that. That progressed on for about eight years and the city saw the need for a full-time code enforcement officer. They have that now. That was a huge relief.”

When Morton was named acting chief last August, he said he was doing two jobs at once because he was still assuming the duties of assistant fire chief as well as the responsibilities of a fire chief. Morton said the new title allows him to name a new assistant to help with the workload.

“The position will be open,” he said. “It’s always come from within the department. We’ll probably bring somebody up within the next week or so.”

The promotion will likely cause a ripple effect of promotions, which would likely end with the department hiring a new firefighter.

Morton said he feels like he has a little more latitude to make changes he wasn’t comfortable making before being named.

“As far as changes, we’re not going to make drastic changes,” he said. “We have a good department and some great people working here. We’ll make updates to our standard operating procedures. We’ll bring them more into the 21^st century. It’s something that we’ve needed to do for a while. We’ll have a little housekeeping on daily activities.

“We’re going to provide the same quality of response to our citizens that we always drive to do. Our main goal is to serve our citizens and visitors of the town.”