Lewiston fire chief retiring next year

Lewiston’s fire chief has selected his 50th birthday as his final day in his present job.

Travis Myklebust will retire as Lewiston’s fire chief May 31, 2023, a job he has held 8½ years, according to a city news release issued late Monday afternoon.

His decision comes after a 31-year career with the Lewiston Fire Department, which has included being part of the city’s first paramedic class and participating in the early phases of a state hazmat team.

No information was immediately available on how the city will seek a replacement for Myklebust.

Myklebust is the fourth high-ranking civil servant to leave the city or announce plans to depart since the municipality switched to a strong mayor form of government, which was approved by voters in last year’s November election.

Dan Marsh’s last day in his job was March 31 after his position was eliminated as part of a reorganization. He was the city’s administrative services director, chief financial officer and city treasurer.

He received a severance package with salary and benefits through the end of September. His annual pay without benefits was $140,000.

Former Lewiston Police Chief Budd Hurd retired in July. He was replaced by Jason Kuzik, who started last week. Kuzik most recently was a patrol captain in the Henderson Police Department in southern Nevada.

Assistant City Attorney Kayla Hermann was promoted to city attorney in late September after Jana Gomez left. Gomez is now senior corporate counsel at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.

Myklebust described his career with the city as an honor, according to the news release.

“The wonderful people I have had the pleasure to work with and the supportive community members I have served make this a bittersweet decision, but it is time,” he said in the release.

His work with the city began when he was 18 years old and was the youngest firefighter ever hired by the department. He was also one of the city’s youngest fire chiefs and has helped the community in a number of ways, according to the release.

Myklebust supported first responder legislation in Idaho “that will provide future funding to the city and the fire department to improve service levels without adding an additional burden to property taxpayers,” according to the news release.

He established mutual aid agreements with the city of Clarkston and Clearwater Paper that put more personnel on the scenes of structure fires and backed measures that improve the health of firefighters.

“This is key to my mission that everyone enters the fire department healthy, so in turn, they should leave healthy,” Myklebust said in the news release.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.