{"id":808096,"date":"2020-06-04T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=384430"},"modified":"2020-06-04T16:27:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:27:09","slug":"red-white-blue-bids-farewell-to-board-president-arch-gothard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/red-white-blue-bids-farewell-to-board-president-arch-gothard\/","title":{"rendered":"Red, White & Blue bids farewell to board President Arch Gothard"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 The Red, White & Blue Fire Protection District is saying goodbye to one of its longest-serving members.<\/p>\n

During the district\u2019s monthly board meeting in May, Arch Gothard officially ended his 17-year journey with the district, including serving as the board\u2019s president for the past six years. Officials said Gothard was invaluable during his time with the district and provided a steady hand in helping to guide the agency to where it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask for a stronger supporter of the district,\u201d Red, White & Blue Chief Jim Keating said. \u201cHe was a person that didn\u2019t really observe from the outside. He dug in and was really able to support our needs in every way. \u2026 I have a 45-year career in public service and have worked under many boards, but I have never served with someone like Arch who can put politics aside and go about the job of providing the public the most effective and efficient services possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gothard, 74, was born in Colorado but spent his formative years on a ranch on the border of Kansas and Oklahoma. He went to military school at the New Mexico Military Institute and later went on to earn his bachelor\u2019s degree at Kansas State University and a law degree at the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n

After school, Gothard went to work for Arthur Anderson, an accounting firm, where he jumped around for 18 years from Kansas City to New York and eventually to Paris. He left to serve as a chief financial officer for a cable television company, which brought him to Breckenridge in 1994.<\/p>\n

He joined the Red, White & Blue board in the early 2000s and has helped in the agency\u2019s evolution ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, when I joined the Red, White & Blue, everyone joked that they were famous for saving foundations,\u201d Gothard said. \u201cThat they didn\u2019t have the equipment, people or response time to be able to save a structure. Obviously, you always have a desire to improve public safety for your community, and it\u2019s a totally different organization now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district saw a number of notable achievements during Gothard\u2019s time on the board, including the final transformation from a part volunteer department to an all staff agency, integrating emergency medical services and the opening of its fourth station on Peak 8.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most notably, Red, White & Blue became one of only 11 agencies in the country to receive dual accreditations<\/a> from the Commission of Accreditation of Ambulance Services and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Chief Jim Keating presents Arch Gothard with an award during the Red, White & Blue Fire Protection District’s 2019 annual awards event. <\/strong>
Courtesy Red, White & Blue<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI wanted to get the organization to where it was solvent and to continually upgrade the quality of service provided by the organization,\u201d Gothard said. \u201cThose objectives kept driving me. After we got our certification for the fire and EMS sides of the house, I pretty well achieved those objectives. But it took a while to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gothard is leaving due to term limitations and will be replaced on the board by Dr. Randy Nations. Nations is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, and he currently operates Mountain Doc Direct Primary Care in Breckenridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving one individual that has all the experience that Arch has is going to be difficult to replace,\u201d Keating said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got quality members all the way across the board, and Randy is bringing a different and important perspective to us, being an MD, as we become more involved in evolving our EMS system. That certainly is going to be an asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gothard said his wife, Cindy Bolt, is also retiring this year after 20 years with the Summit School District. The two live in Breckenridge and operate a ranch in Fairplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019re both going to have to find something else to do,\u201d Gothard joked. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult. I have Red, White & Blue in my blood, and it’s very difficult to leave. \u2026 The agency has a wonderful bunch of people, and it was my privilege to be associated with them. They were kind to let me stay there. I\u2019d just have to say I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 The Red, White & Blue Fire Protection District is saying goodbye to one of its longest-serving members. During the district\u2019s monthly board meeting in May, Arch Gothard officially ended his 17-year journey with the district, including serving as the board\u2019s president for the past six years. Officials said Gothard was invaluable during his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-808096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-07 05:33:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}