The GHFPD Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it has officially hired Richard Caudill for the Chief of the Gold Hill Fire Department.   Richard has over 30 years of experience in the fire service with Littleton and eventually South Metro and has held the ranks of firefighter, paramedic, lieutenant, and battalion captain.  Richard was also a full time fire instructor for 12 week fire academies and has experience implementing fire-based EMS transport, community based prevention programs, and is experienced in grant writing.  Richard will be joining us at the beginning of June.  This was a lengthy hiring process with over a dozen candidates which resulted in three in person interviews and multiple phone interviews, with two candidates making it to the final round.  Thank you to the board for the extra hours and to the volunteers who attended the final interviews.  Our hope is that with more permanent leadership dedicated solely to Gold Hill, we can continue to build and grow.  This will include working on succession planning, building up our group of officers, recruiting more volunteers, and determining our volunteers needs and providing paths for them to grow into those roles.  Additionally we hope to continue to acquire more modern equipment, a new apparatus, build a capital replacement plan, and to provide consistent quality training on all of our equipment.  We will also be applying for grants and looking at opportunities to build a new station or refurbish and modernize our current station.  This process will take time and the help of all our volunteers and community members.  Lastly, the goal of the GHFPD today is what it has always been, to provide the highest level of emergency services to our community.  We believe that with a paid position we can continue to elevate our capabilities and improve our services to protect lives and property in and around Gold Hill.