The board of directors of the Hoodland Fire District (HFD) selected James Price
as the next Fire Chief following interviews with the final three candidates on
Monday, Nov. 16. A Meet and Greet event for the three candidates to be
introduced to the public on Sunday, Nov. 15 was cancelled due to the rising
number of coronavirus cases.

Price comes to HFD from the Rogue River Fire District, where he was the Fire
Chief for the past six and a half years.

“I’m just super excited for the opportunity,” Price said. “My door is always
open to the community.”

Price grew up in Battleground, Wash. and his father and an uncle served as
firefighters in Portland. He noted that he wasn’t initially interested in following
in their footsteps, but after volunteering for the Clark County Fire District, he
discovered he enjoyed it.

Price went on to serve with the Baker City Fire Department as a
Firefighter/Paramedic before taking the helm at Rogue River.

In his earlier years, Price recalled skiing at SkiBowl and driving by the HFD
station while thinking it might be a good place to work. He enjoys hiking,
fishing, bow hunting and reading.

Price added that he has heard about the “great community” on the Mountain
and good things about the people involved with the HFD.

Price will take over as the HFD grapples with issues brought to light by an
organizational assessment performed by the Special Districts Association of
Oregon, in which it offered 64 recommendations dealing with everything from

governance and personnel management to finances and the training and
safety program.

He noted that he sees it as a good opportunity to “meet those challenges.”
Price is tentatively set to start on the job on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.

Shirley Dueber, president of the HFD board of directors, noted that the final
three candidates were all very qualified to take on the challenges of the job.

“If we could have, we would have hired all three of them,” Dueber said.
“Every one of them would have fit in somewhere where we needed them in
the department. It was a hard choice.”