Two firefighters with the Town of The Blue Mountains have received special long service awards.
At council’s meeting on Dec. 2, Fire Chief Steve Conn was awarded his 35 years of service bar and Deputy Chief Cameron Smith received his 25 years of service medal.
Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon made the presentations at the meeting and thanked both Conn and Smith for their continued dedication to protecting local residents and the public.
Conn has spent his entire 35-year career with the local fire department. He started with the Collingwood Township department as a volunteer in 1989, became a full-time employee in 2004 and was named interim chief in August 2019 and full-time chief in December 2019.
Smith began his firefighting career as a volunteer in Ajax in 1998 and he became a full-time firefighter in 2000. In 2019 he joined the Kawartha Lakes department, first as training officer and then later as deputy chief. Smith joined The Blue Mountains department in 2023.
The awards are presented by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General through the office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management.
The public galleries were packed with members of the fire department in their dress uniforms for the presentations and members of town staff were also on hand to watch the ceremony.
“It’s very humbling for deputy chief Smith and I to see some of our staff show up today and town staff showing up in the atrium,” said Conn. “I just want to let everybody know it’s very humbling to be your fire chief of the community I’ve grown up in and have been here my whole career.”
