LIBERTY — Longtime Liberty firefighter and Chief Gus Birch gave a heartfelt “goodbye” to township officials and residents Monday during his last township meeting, where trustees voted to hire his replacement.

Douglas Theobald, the fire chief of the Newton Falls Joint Fire District since 2017, was hired unanimously by trustees at $75,000 per year. Birch is paid $76,024 per year, according to the trustees.

Kind words about Birch’s time in charge of the department, the cap to a 41-year firefighting and paramedic career, were provided by police Chief Toby Meloro, township Clerk Martha Weirick and the trustees, and they gave Birch a standing ovation.

Birch teared up during his goodbye. He said it was “harder” than he “thought it would be” to take leave from the department.

Birch started his career in 1980 as a volunteer firefighter in Fowler and then Vienna. He worked for a private EMS company, was a paramedic and a shift supervisor.

He joined the Liberty Fire Department in 1994 part time and became full time in 1996.

Birch said previously he reached a point where he felt he was leaving the department better than he found it, and so feels comfortable retiring. He said he was able to increase staff, obtain two new ambulances and a new rescue engine, get four new cardiac monitors and a new chief car.

Theobald is expected to start in the position in January.

Theobald was in the U.S. Navy from 1978 to 1986, serving on nuclear-class submarines, according to his resume, provided by the township.

Before taking the position with the Newton Falls Joint Fire District, Theobald was a firefighter and emergency medical technician at the East Cleveland Fire Department, where he was hired in 1988, according to his resume. There, he was made acting deputy chief in 2016. He also served in the Twinsburg Fire Department from 1994 to 2007, and has worked as a fire equipment inspector and technician, and as a fire instructor.

He studied fire training at Cuyahoga Community College.