Redenius sworn in as new Cottage Grove fire chief

• Rick Redenius

New Cottage Grove Fire Chief Rick Redenius is sworn-in by City Administrator Ryan Schroeder at a City Council meeting Nov. 21. Redenius is a longtime part-time Cottage Grove firefighter and served on the St. Paul Park Police Department until last week. Bulletin photo by Jon Avise

Talk about it

Rick Redenius, Cottage Grove’s new top fire official, received praise from his new and old employers as he was sworn-in last week.

Redenius took his oath as the city’s new fire chief at a Cottage Grove City Council meeting Nov. 21, a homegrown replacement for the retired Bob Byerly. A 1987 Park High School graduate and longtime Cottage Grove resident, Redenius is a former volunteer firefighter and, most recently, the Cottage Grove Fire Department’s part-time deputy chief and a full-time St. Paul Park police officer for more than a decade.

“It’s an honor to have you serve for us,” Cottage Grove Mayor Myron Bailey last week during the brief swearing-in ceremony.

Two days earlier, Bailey’s St. Paul Park counterpart, Mayor Keith Franke, praised the new chief as that city accepted Redenius’ resignation from the police position he had held since the 1990s. “Our loss is definitely Cottage Grove’s gain,” Franke said Nov. 19. “Rick has served a lot of years faithfully for us here and we’ll be sad to have him go.”

As fire chief and deputy public safety director, Redenius’ salary will start at $84,480 during a one-year probationary period. He was the lone finalist for the position among five candidates following a search that Public Safety Director Craig Woolery called “a very competitive process.”

The Cottage Grove Fire Department is part of the city’s larger Public Safety Department headed by director Woolery.

Tags: crime and courts, cottage grove, updates, crime