Jim Benson, a senior member of the Batavia Fire Department, recently was applauded for his 30 years of service as a paid-on-call firefighter, the last 15 years as an engineer responsible for driving apparatus to incidents and for its proper operation.
Benson also is employed as the city’s building inspector. His dual hats were the subject of remarks by Mayor Jeff Schielke, as the city formally recognized Benson’s long service at Monday’s City Council meeting.
“Jim is one person who in his service throughout the years really did two jobs,” Schielke said. “He did what he had to do at a fire, but when the rest of firefighters would board the firetruck and go home, Jim would flip off one hat and flip on another as building inspector, checking out the dangerous walls or whatever now that the fire was out.”