Bob Zanetti, a 32-year veteran of the Park City Fire District, has been approved by the Summit County Council to succeed the late Paul Hewitt as chief of the department.
At its August 18th meeting, the county council approved a five-year contract for Zanetti, who joined the Department in 1989.
Council Member Roger Armstrong noted that Zanetti had been Deputy Chief under Paul Hewitt, who died tragically after an ATV accident in Oregon July 23rd.
“Chief Zanettti has 30-plus years of experience. He worked remarkably closely with Chief Hewitt. And I know from personal conversations with Chief Hewitt that he placed very high value on Chief Zanetti and his skills and his advice. And I think that personally I’m grateful that Chief Zanetti has elected to stay on. Usually once you pass that 30 year mark, you start looking at maybe there’s something else you might wanna do. And having that stability at this time I think is critical.”
The chair of the Park City Fire Board, Michael Howard, said that Zanetti had previously passed on the chance to become chief. But this time they were able to convince him.
“I’m grateful we didn’t have to twist his arm too much to take it, cause at first he never did. When we interviewed Chief Hewitt about 10 years ago, Bob was like, ‘Nope, I don’t want it. I just want to stay in this role.’ And so, it didn’t take a whole lot of arm-twisting, did it, not a lot, to get him to agree to stay on.”
Michael Howard, Park City Fire Board Chair.
