READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading\u2019s 22nd fire chief took his oath of office Monday night at the Reading City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.<\/p>\n
Council voted to appoint Chief Robert Leonard II in late March at an annual salary of $120,000.<\/p>\n
Leonard came to Reading after leaving the position of assistant fire chief at Prince George\u2019s County Fire\/EMS, Maryland.<\/p>\n
Leonard thanked City Council for giving him the opportunity to serve as fire chief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s truly been and honor and a preference,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cSince I started on April 1st, I wake up every morning to remind myself, \u2018You’re living your dream of being a fire chief. Don’t mess this up,\u2019 as my dad would say. It’s a simple thought, but it keeps me grounded and reminds me of the right responsibility that comes with this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to thank the officers, firefighters for welcoming me with open arms,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cWhether it’s inviting me to lunch and dinners or even having a little fun at my expense during station business, you made me feel like a part of this city.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis city has embraced me as one of their own,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been humbled by the warmth and through the encouragement this community has shown me. As I continue in this role, my priority is to build a trust with the men and women of this great department. Trust is earned through honesty, consistency, and showing up for one another every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Moran thanked the Leonard and congratulated him for being sworn in as chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd of course, all firefighters, thank you for your service,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you once again, and thank you to your family for their support and your former department for coming and supporting you as well,\u201d Moran said to Leonard. \u201cOn behalf of all of us and City Council, we’re so glad you’re here with us. We thank you for your confidence in our city, and we look forward to working with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard replaces former Chief James Stoudt, who retired earlier this year after more than three decades with the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading\u2019s 22nd fire chief took his oath of office Monday night at the Reading City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[990,11615,6423,40156,33338,736,128,130,129,7174,100031,100030],"class_list":["post-231539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-city-council","tag-fire-chief","tag-james-stoudt","tag-oath-of-office","tag-prince-george","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-retirement","tag-robert-leonard","tag-swearing-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}