Columbus Fire and EMS leader announces decision to retire soon. Here’s more.

The Chief of the Columbus Fire and EMS Department is retiring after 38 years with the city.

Chief Jeffery Meyer will be retiring on Jan. 31, according to a press release from the Columbus Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. Meyer has been involved with the city since 1982 and went through his share of ups and downs with the city.

Meyer often made numerous passionate pleas for increased funding and an increased budget to members of the Columbus city council over the years.

“We’ve got the absolute best employees, in my opinion, that work for this department,” he said at a city council meeting in May 2017. “They do it because they love what they do, and they do it because they love people.”

In 2008, Meyer was reprimanded by former Columbus mayor Jim Wetherington for the way he handed various issues in the department. Wetherington later decided not to terminate or suspend him.

“I still got confidence in him,” Wetherington said in May 2008.

It is unknown at this time who will become the new chief of the Columbus Fire Department or the EMS Department.