Committee recommends successor for Van Voorhis
The Beacon City Council is expected to vote on Monday (April 10) to hire Thomas Lucchesi as the city’s new fire chief.
Thomas Lucchesi (Photo provided)
If the council approves, Lucchesi will start on a part-time, three-day-per-week basis. He will begin full time once Dutchess County releases the results of his civil service exam, although that may not be until summer, City Administrator Chris White said.
Gary Van Voorhis, who in 2013 became the city’s first full-time, paid chief, retired last year but agreed to continue part time until a successor is named. He will remain with the city on a part-time basis as Lucchesi transitions into the position, White said.
Lucchesi is Newburgh’s assistant fire chief and shift commander; he also works contractually as a fire district administrator for the Vails Gate Fire District in New Windsor.
“I’ve dedicated my life to the fire service,” Lucchesi told the City Council on Monday (April 3), noting that he became a volunteer firefighter when he was 16 years old and an emergency medical technician before graduating from high school.
When asked as a child what he wanted to be when he grew up, “my answer was always to be a firefighter,” Lucchesi said. “That’s all I ever I wanted to be.”
Lucchesi was the unanimous first choice of an interviewing committee that consisted of White and Van Voorhis; Sara Morris, the city’s director of human resources; and two Fire Department lieutenants.
