A fire district serving the Green Mountain Falls and Chipita Park communities has chosen Karen Bodine as its next chief, filling the position vacated when Steve Murphy retired after 20 years leading the agency. Bodine had been running day-to-day operations on an interim basis while the search was underway.
Bodine brought an unusually wide footprint across Ute Pass fire service to the role, having led the Cascade Fire Department, held a part-time position with Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District, and previously worked part-time under Murphy before stepping in as interim chief in June. With the permanent appointment secured, she is retiring this month from her volunteer chief duties at Cascade, a department she served for 26 years, the last eight of them in command.
The hire carries historical weight on two fronts. Bodine has described herself as the first and only woman ever to hold the chief title at Cascade, and that same distinction now applies to her new position. District treasurer Gary Florence backed the selection on both professional and personal grounds, saying Bodine brings "an amazing background in firefighting and EMS and the Ute Pass area," adding that she was born in Cascade and has lived there her entire life, and that "the district board feels we made a good decision in hiring her."
At the top of Bodine's agenda is completing a long-range strategic plan, driven by what she sees as a continuously growing demand for emergency response. To keep pace with district growth, she has already opened the firefighter application process to candidates from surrounding agencies. The department functions as a full all-hazards operation, responding to traffic collisions, medical calls, and both structure and wildland fires.
Bodine's ties to the area run deeper than the fire service. A Cascade native, she spent part of her childhood at a family-run popcorn shop along U.S. 24, operated for decades by her mother Becky and her late father Duane Schoerman. That business closed in December 2024, and the building is now leased to a local boutique. Looking ahead to community engagement, she has said she plans to help create activities that bring residents and the department together around shared ideas for community events.
Whether Bodine can finalize the district's strategic plan and build out its volunteer roster on the timeline she has outlined will be the early measures of her tenure to watch.