Lincolnwood has a new fire chief, but he is not a stranger to the village.
Barry Liss, 65, who worked in neighboring Skokie’s fire department from 1980 through 2014, was named the new fire chief in Lincolnwood, succeeding the retiring Michael Hansen.
Village officials selected from a pool of 20 applicants for a chief, who oversees a department with a nearly $3.9 million budget and 30 employees. Liss will have a $158,500 annual salary, and was scheduled to start Aug. 22.
“I’m familiar with the lay of the land, I am familiar with the operation of how you provide fire and EMS services,” Liss said in an interview. “It is almost like coming back home when I come to Lincolnwood, with the 34 years in Skokie.”
Upon retiring from Skokie in 2014, Liss was named the fire chief in Oak Brook where he worked until last year.
“I had done all I could do for the organization,” he said.
Liss wanted to continue his time in public service and was intrigued with the Lincolnwood opportunity.
“I love the fire service,” he said.”I’ve enjoyed it, it has been a fabulous career path. I was looking for an opportunity after I left Oak Brook to continue to serve and bring all the experience and knowledge I had within the organization where I could do some good. I’m not ready to hang it up. I still have a lot to offer.”
With Lincolnwood and Skokie providing mutual assistance in emergency situations, local leaders believe he will not have a learning curve in his new role.
“He has an absolutely impressive résumé and experience,” Lincolnwood Mayor Jesal Patel said. “His time in Skokie gives him a very good understanding of the area. Being in a community like Oak Brook, he understands how to provide the high quality service that a community like ours expects.”
Liss started his career as a dispatcher in the Skokie Fire Department, interested in a career in public service.
“I love making a difference,” he said. “Public safety is an honorable profession and I love the idea of being able to help people when they are in need and they don’t know where to turn and they turn to the fire service for help.”
With a career that started in 1980, Liss rose through the ranks in Skokie with the department achieving full accreditation three times from the Commission of Fire Accreditation International.
Among those Liss worked with in Skokie is Anthony Scarpelli, the village’s former police chief, who retired in 2020.
“He will bring a passion to deliver exemplary services from the Lincolnwood Fire Department to the people who live, work and play in Lincolnwood,” Scarpelli said.
Scarpelli recalled one incident when the public safety departments received hundreds of inquiries in a short period of time from residents.
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“He jumped in and answered calls like everyone else and dispatched apparatus as appropriate. That showed he was a take-charge kind of person,” Scarpelli said.
Liss said his time in Oak Brook, where he said a lot of construction is ongoing, will give him fresh perspective on any Fire Department role in the ongoing construction of the District 1860 project at the northeast corner of Touhy and Lincoln Avenues.
“I’m very familiar with the fire department’s function when it comes to new construction, new ideas and new corporate partners when they come in,” he said.
He is married to Mary Liss, the Lincolnwood Police Department’s executive secretary, but Village Manager Anne Marie Gaura said that does not violate the village’s anti-nepotism policy.
“Earlier this summer, the village began a review of our Administrative Protocol on the Hiring of Relatives in comparison to 14 other municipalities,” Gaura wrote in an e-mail. “As a result of that process and the information received, the policy was revised to allow for related employees to work in separate departments, which was our standing practice.”
Liss is anxious to get this new chapter of his career going.
“I’m looking forward to a fresh start with fresh faces and I am excited to provide all the experience I have to hopefully help make a difference to continue to improve a continuous improvement model,” Liss said.