Carol Stream's fire chief leaving for Denver post

It's the end of the line for Carol Stream's top fire administrator.

Mark Bodane, chief of the Carol Stream Fire Protection District, will be leaving next Tuesday to take a new job in Brighton, Colo., a town just outside Denver.

The move caps a 21-year career for Bodane in Carol Stream. He's been at the helm since 1991.

During that time he's ushered in two new fire stations, remodeled a third and kept the department on the forefront of both the village's population growth and the changes in how the fire district does its job.

"Moving is always risky, but my wife and I made a big gamble in moving to Carol Stream from the south suburbs," Bodane said. "I'm excited about the challenges and opportunities."

Bodane started his career in Carol Stream in 1986 as a fire prevention director, an administrative position that oversaw the district's public education and outreach efforts, as well as inspections of new developments.

There was a lot of new construction in the early years. During Bodane's tenure, the population in Carol Stream roughly doubled.

As chief, Bodane convinced the village to swap a nine-acre land parcel it owned near Kuhn Road and North Avenue for the district's old headquarters just a half-mile up the road.

He helped broker the deal to convince the College of DuPage to open a community education center on the site.

"Mark Bodane is the kind of guy who got along with everybody," said Village President Frank Saverino, who served as a fire district board trustee at the time. "His talent was making everybody walk away from the table feeling like they won, and that's not easy to do."

In the mid-1990s, the district started adding computer laptops onto its trucks with new mapping software that included sketches of many of the industrial buildings within its coverage area.

The decision was met with some skepticism by area departments, Bodane said.

"Flash forward to 12 years later, and you now have people saying how we could ever do our jobs without this stuff," Bodane said.

Deputy Chief Mike Kanzia will act as interim chief after Bodane's departure. The fire district board of trustees hasn't yet decided who will permanently fill the position.

Bodane begins in his new job on Aug. 16.