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Crime & Safety

Fire Department Lt. Bill Williams Honored for Service, Makes Hard Decision to Move After 25 Years

Bill Williams receives accolades from the fire chief, the mayor and the City Council as he turns his attention to a new job nearer his son.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
— Mark Twain 

 

When Lt. Bill Williams took a job with the back in 1980, he displayed courage in the way Mark Twain described it. 

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"The most challenging thing for me? One was my extreme fear of heights and climbing ladders," he told Geneva City Council members Tuesday night. "Whenever I climb a ladder, my eyes are closed until I get to the top."

Williams had come to City Hall to receive a plaque in honor of his 25 years of service with the department. More than a dozen firefighters and friends attended the City Council meeting to honor him and , who received his own accolades for 30 years with the Geneva Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.

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"The other extreme challenge," Williams said, "is to be leaving on the 28th or 29th and hanging up my gear for the last time."

Williams will be moving to Louisville, KY, to work with his son Joe, who is a fire protection engineer assigned to the department's Fire Prevention Bureau. Williams will be a data analyst for the bureau, which is a newly created position.

Williams began his career as a Geneva firefighter in 1980. He and his family moved to Aurora for a time, then returned to Geneva. In 1995, he was promoted to the lieutenant and later was moved to the IT division, where he was instrumental in the installment of mobil software into the front seats of responding vehicles.

Mayor Kevin Burns said Williams also was a "major player" in the development of mobil connections between Tri-Com and Geneva police and fire apparatus.

“He is a good man, a great dad and an excellent fire fighter,” Fire Chief Steve Olson said in the statement Burns read to the audience Tuesday.

Burns said the city regretted seeing Williams go but wished him the best of luck.

"We know it’s a difficult decision for you," Burns said. "You’ve done extraordinary work, much of which will probably not be known by those those have benefitted.”

Fourth Ward Alderman Ron Singer praised Williams and added his gratitude.

"I’ve known Mr. Williams for a number of years," he said. "He’s really a marvelous individual. I commend you, sir, and I appreciate all you’ve done for our city."

Third Ward Alderman Dawn Vogelsberg echoed Singer's remarks, but said she understood his decision to move closer to his family.

"No one can trump a grandchild," she said.

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