he Nederland Fire Protection District Board is pleased to announce the finalist from the search for the open Chief position.

In the national search by CPS HR, 27 applications were received which were pre-screened by CPS HR to 14 possible candidates. The quality of applications was incredibly high.

In a special executive session on November 17, 2021, the search board, consisting of the Nederland Fire Protection District Board, Nederland Town Administrator Miranda Fisher, Acting Chief Charlie Schmidtmann and two volunteer representatives, Lieutenant Andrew Joslin and firefighter Alex Olivas, selected six candidates to move forward to an oral interview stage. Two candidates withdrew prior to the oral interviews.

Oral interviews and candidate considerations were conducted in two special executive sessions over the last week and a single finalist was selected from the process.

The Nederland Fire Department is pleased to announce that the Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) training chief, Michael Scott was selected as the sole finalist for the post.

Chief Scott is well-known in Colorado and has a long history of serving multiple departments and the State of Colorado over his career. A second-generation firefighter, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Chief Scott is honored and excited to serve the Nederland Fire Protection District. He is ready to work with the community, with our volunteers, staff and board to take Nederland Fire into the future. He brings to our department a wealth of knowledge and skills and is a renowned and respected national speaker and teacher within the fire service.

Chief Scott along with his wife and three children currently live in Littleton, Colorado. They are looking to move closer, and ideally, into the Nederland area to best understand and serve our community.

On Saturday, December 11, the department will be hosting an open house at 6 p.m. for the department to meet him and the meeting will be public on Zoom. This is an opportunity for interested parties to question Chief Scott during the session.

Chief Scott’s resume and application materials are available on the NFPD website at https://nfpd.org/chief_ scott.pdf.

The board would like to especially thank everyone who participated in the process to find us a new Chief.

The department is finalizing pre-employment checks and negotiation of terms and it is hoped that he will start on January 3, 2022. Please extend a great Nederland welcome to Chief Scott as he settles in.