Florissant

Am I speaking the truth? I mean, this, this stuff happens.

So I remember, obviously, the ones in Florissant, which are no longer around, [laughs] uh, 'cause they sold all the land.

So, um, but I remember, like, growing up and going to the pumpkin patch.

They had the giant, like, hay bales-

I'm your host, Eric Lindenberger, and my guest today needs very little introduction in the fire service world.

Jason Hoevelmann's the fire chief of the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District in North St. Louis County, Missouri.

He's authored books, written extensively for industry publications, and delivered a banger of an FDIC keynote a couple of years ago.

He's a dang good instructor, an even better dude, and the kind of positive influence we need among so much noise these days.

That was no guarantee you were gonna get in, but we were the first ones in the door to, to get the applications to try to get it turned in.

And, and, um, so I started my career at the City of Webster Groves in 1996.

Um, spent four years there and then came to Florissant in 2000, where I was a firefighter, paramedic, training officer, captain, battalion chief, and I've been fire chief for about the last eight years almost.

At the end of the year, it'll be eight years.

Then next up we have Anastasia.

at the Alpha Players of Florissant, doing a little soft launch into this spooky season here.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I was thinking that.

the mysterious story of the potentially lost princess of Russia.

Right.

Alpha Players of Florissant is the community theater of of Florissant.

It, uh, now they've only been around like a little over 60 years.

Is that in Newport? Big Boy Restaurant.

There's a Big Boy Restaurant group in Florissant.

What are they all called? Mark's Big Boy?

Bob's Big Boy.

Yes

... that it was kind of like a shady little place in Florissant where we grew up.

Mm-hmm.

But, I mean, I bowled there in a league when I was in elementary school.

But I mean both places

... yes.

But man, if you go to a bowling alley in Florissant, you always got good like fries out of that snack bar.

Oh, you got good fried food.

It's a whole thing.

But my family's from North County, Overland, Ferguson, Florissant.

And I also went to school in Ladue.

Look at us.

And it felt like we were so far from the middle or even a semblance of having a conversation to even decide, is there a middle? Do we want a middle?

Yeah.

Um, and growing up, you know, I grew up in Florissant.

I went to Barrington elementary.