AMBOY – With four days to decide who should be the interim chief of the Amboy Fire Protection District after former chief Jeff Bryant Sr. announced his retirement, the board had to move fast.

At the board meeting on Monday, Sept. 9, Duane Dickison was named the interim chief.

“It’s an honor for me to take the role,” Dickison said. “The board asked me to do it. They have confidence in me and that feels good. I think it’s going to work out very well.”

Dickison is an Amboy native, who graduated from Amboy High School in 1979. He was part of the Amboy Fire Department before leaving for the Rock Falls Fire Department where he was a full-time firefighter for 15 years. He also spent five years in Minooka where he was a chemic at a chemical plant and an assistant fire chief.

He came back to Amboy about 10 years ago, has been part of AFD since then, and has been an assistant chief for the last five years.

Dickison is excited for the challenge of being the interim chief and wants to be the full-time chief. However, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to be the AFD chief.

“I’m a snowbird. I leave every November to Avon Park, Florida and come back in April,” said Dickison, who is retired. “I would love to be the chief and not just the interim, but the board and I would have to figure out how to do that since I leave the area for five months.”