CANFIELD — The Cardinal Joint Fire District Board of Directors filled a full-time spot earlier this week with the swearing in of firefighter / paramedic Sam Kanagy, who served one year as a part-timer.

“I like it here. You’re treated right,” he said. “I hope to be here for a while. My goal was to go full time.”

Kanagy is not new to the fire service. He has served as a part time-volunteer firefighter / paramedic with both the Sebring Fire Department and the Damascus Fire Department, which is his hometown.

His grandfather, James Cannell, served on the Sebring Volunteer Fire Department for 50 years and most of the latter years was in the role of chief.

Cannell is very well known, according to CJFD Chief Don Hutchison. He said the former chief got together with former chiefs Robert Tieche from Canfield, Andy Frost from Austintown and Harold Milligan from Struthers to form the first Mahoning County Fire Chiefs Association.

Kanagy’s mother, Mikki Kanagy, was on hand for the ceremonial honor of pinning the new badge on her son’s uniform. Also attending were his father, David Kanagy, and brother, Michael Kanagy, along with a dozen fellow Canfield firefighters.

In related business, the board approved moving Dave Hess to the rank of lieutenant.

Following Kanagy’s swearing in, the floor was given to Hutchison for the chief’s report. For the month of November, Hutchison said the district ran 242 calls, of which 117 were for emergency medical service. The district received one mutual aid and provided nine.

“We received a letter from the Ohio State Highway Patrol thanking our guys for all the help at the crash scene on Route 11 (where Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton lost his life while helping a truck driver) and at the funeral of the trooper as well,” Hutchison said. “We also had a trooper tell us if we hadn’t gone to work on the truck driver at the scene, there may have been two lives lost.”

In other business, the board approved the adoption of a cyber security policy. Board member and Canfield Township Trustee Marie Cartwright said the plan for a cyber security policy actually began this past summer and was made mandatory for all government entities.

The policy, according to Hutchison, will be fully implemented by July 1. The policy will next head to the department’s IT team and every member of the department will be going through cyber security training early next year.