{"id":309989,"date":"2026-05-27T01:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/309989\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T01:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:06:18","slug":"west-u-fire-chief-to-retire-interim-chief-to-take-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/309989\/","title":{"rendered":"West U fire chief to retire; interim chief to take over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWest University Place Fire Chief James Novak will retire May 28 after 30 years of service.<\/p>\n

Career history<\/p>\n

Novak has been the city’s fire chief<\/a> since December 2024 and joined the department in 1996, starting as a firefighter-paramedic.<\/p>\n

In 2010, he became a lieutenant, and in 2013, he was named assistant chief\/fire marshal.<\/p>\n

During his time as chief, the city said he strengthened partnerships with the cities of Bellaire and Southside Place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been an unbelievable honor,\u201d Novak said at West U\u2019s May 11 City Council meeting<\/a>. \u201cThank you for trusting me to do the job and for your support.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

City Manager Dave Beach said during Novak\u2019s time with the city, he extended his retirement by two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, he was going to retire two years ago [in 2024], but he stayed on to see the department through some transition,\u201d Beach said.<\/p>\n

During the May 11 meeting, the city read a proclamation honoring him and designated May 28, 2026, as James Novak Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the memories are going to be forever in my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cThe men and women in this department are amazing. I\u2019m going to truly miss that camaraderie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/p>\n

West U officials said the city is conducting an internal promotion process to fill the position. In the meantime, Assistant Chief\/Fire Marshal Aaron Rosenfield will serve as interim chief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West University Place Fire Chief James Novak will retire May 28 after 30 years of service. Career history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111885,56,58,57,111887,39287,111886,111884,10105],"class_list":["post-309989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-fire-chief-james-novak","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-james-novak-retirement","tag-west-u","tag-west-u-fire-department","tag-west-u-public-safety","tag-west-university-place"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}