RAPID CITY, S.D. – Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender wants to make the city’s interim police chief and fire chief the permanent choices for those jobs.
His recommendations of Jason Culberson as fire chief and Don Hedrick as police chief will be considered by the city council at its next meeting next Monday. Both were named interim chief in June.
Allender, himself a retired Rapid City police chief, says a citizens panel drawn from the public and private sectors put in extensive work in vetting the applicants and analyzing their strengths and weakness – calling the panel’s insights and input valuable to the selection process.
Allender says both Dulbertson and Hedrick possess not only the needed credentials for their posts, they also have the leadership skills to lead their departments and the qualities to serve all the citizens of the community with a genuine sense of caring
Culberson is a 27-year veteran of the Rapid City Fire and Emergency Services while Hedrick joined the Rapid City police in 2002 and eventually serving as a detective, patrol sergeant and lieutenant, special operations lieutenant and support services division captain.
Hedrick has taken several Lakota history and language courses at Oglala Lakota College and in May was accepted as a Bloomberg Fellow into the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.