After next week, Doug Strope will be able to spend a lot more time with his three grandchildren.
An assistant chief with the Jefferson City Fire Department, Strope will be retiring after 381â„2 years of service.
"I think it was by luck that I got on the fire department," he said. "I was 21 and looking for a job. I was delivering construction supplies at the time, and my dad came home one day and said the fire department was looking to hire 15 people to make up the first third shift for the department. Several months later, I was hired."
Compared to when he started, Strope said, the firefighters have ....