Dreiling elected as fire chief

Rick Dreiling will take over as chief of the Grant Volunteer Fire Department / Perkins County Ambulance at the start of the new year. He will replace Don Softley, who has held the position for 21 of his 41 years of membership. 

Dreiling will become the 20th chief in the 129-year history of the department. He is an 11-year member of GVFD and served on other departments for an additional seven years. He has served as senior captain for 10 years. 

Softley chose not to run for re-election, stating his lack of forthcoming time to commit to the demands of being chief. 

He said with additional employment time constraints and the desire to witness his grandchildren participate in their school activities, he simply can’t fulfill the demands required of the chief. 

“My family commitments remind me of the time I could not be chief in the mid-1990s. At that time, Kay and I had a son in junior high athletics, a son in high school athletics, and a son in college athletics,” said Softley. 

He was elected to the position of senior captain. 

Fred Reichert remains the assistant chief, a position he has held for the last 10 years. 

Election and appointment results are as follows:

Chief—Dreiling;

Assistant Chief—Reichert;

Senior Captain—Softley;

Fire Captains—Bryan Kroeker, Jason Noyes;

Fire Lieutenant—Robert Hochstein; 

Ambulance Captain—Chasity Knoles; 

Ambulance Lieutenants-—Robert Tatum, Dalton Zimmerman; 

President-—Noyes;

Vice President—Scott Knoles; 

Secretary—Ben Francisco; 

Treasurer—Hochstein;

Board of Directors—Brent Deaver, Roger Friesen, Matt Deaver;

Members—Casey Griffin, Rick Ochsner, Casandra Cockerill, John Pick, Brionne Griffin, Dwight Wiebe, Brianna Stevens, Robert Engel Jr., Chod Briggs, Shawn Wiebe, Brandon Lampmann, Robert Kentner, Dustin Mittan, Gerald Hostetler.