OTTUMWA — Dressed in the decorative uniform of a firefighter, Sean Canto exuded the confidence of someone in his profession for more than three decades.
And yet complacency is not an option.
Canto, who was officially named the new fire chief of the Ottumwa Fire Department last week, gave his first comments to the community during the Ottumwa City Council meeting on Tuesday. He talked about his family history in fire safety, but also that the fire department is a moving target.
‘The fire brigade that my father started in the late 1960s is not the fire brigade of 2025. It keeps changing. The service delivery model of what we do has to continue to change,” he said. “Counting seconds and counting minutes, and what we do in public service is the same as the Ottumwa Police Department.
“We’re going to evaluate everything within the organization: our service levels, how we operate, our policies and procedures, our training,” Canto said. “We are going to evaluate everything and if there are any things that need to be updated, we are going to take the department to the next level and serve the citizens with the most efficient and effective service we can provide to the community.”
The city has been without a chief since September 2023 when Chief Tony Miller retired and was replaced on an interim basis by Pat Short. Earlier that year, the department was embroiled in multiple sexual misconduct and HIPPA violations.
When a search for a permanent head failed to bear fruit for various reasons, the city in June tried to hire a Wisconsin firm to oversee and evaluate the department in lieu of having no head. That agenda item remained on the table for six months before it was finally removed on Tuesday.
Canto’s appointment offers these evaluation opportunities. Before arriving in Ottumwa, he served as chief of the City of Rochester Hills, Michigan, Fire and Emergency Services for ten years. He also spent time with fire departments in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Ohio and Kentucky.
He was also sent to a pair of hurricane-ravaged towns in New Orleans (Katrina) and Baltimore (Isabella).
“I’m looking forward to being here, I’m looking forward to being part of the Ottumwa community,” he said. “My office door is always open. I’m going to look at the organization from an altitude of 10,000 feet, all the way down, and we’re going to take this organization with us on a journey.”
In other matters:
— During a three-minute segment at the end of the meeting, resident Jerry Krafka raised concerns about the phases in which the city will reconstruct West Mary Street once that project begins. Set to be leased to the Iowa Department of Transportation in March, the project is a complete reconstruction from Mary Street to Shaul Avenue, a distance of approximately 0.7 miles, and will put pressure on traffic in the area, especially in the neighborhood from Liberty Intermediate School.
Public Works Director Phillip Burgmeier didn’t know how long the project would take because it “depends on how much manpower they spend on it.”
“The school is there, so there is a certain order you have to follow, but we plan to get it all done within a year,” he said. ‘We are going to organize it so that this part of the school to Ferry Street is ready when school is out.’
Krafka was concerned about the accessibility of his home on the north side of Mary Street.
“I just don’t know how big this project is going to be because we can’t get out the back end of it,” he said. “No one has come to me and given me a handout that they are going to encroach on my property. I’ve heard all kinds of rumors, but I’m just curious how the issues will be addressed for the people who live on that side. off the street.”
— The council approved a rezoning ordinance behind the former Hy-Vee on the north side, a city-owned parcel of land, to allow Blunt Investments to build a car wash. The council waived a final reading of the ordinance to approve it. The city had owned the two parcels since 2015 and sold them for $5,000 per parcel.
