Longtime Waukesha fire chief retiring

Nov. 28, 2011

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 28, 2011 0

Waukesha - Fire Chief Allen LaConte is retiring after 34 years with the 109-member Waukesha Fire Department, the last 10 as chief.

LaConte, in a letter to be reported at Monday evening's Police and Fire Commission meeting, said his retirement would be effective March 3. However, in a telephone interview he said his last day physically on the job would fall the week before Christmas.

He joined the department in July 1977 as a firefighter and served as a paramedic, a captain, a shift commander and assistant chief before replacing chief Robert Stedman, first as acting chief and then chief.

During his tenure, three new fire stations have been constructed - including rebuilt headquarters on St. Paul Ave. in downtown Waukesha, and relocations of west side and east side stations on Summit Ave., which opened in 2005, and Pearl St., which is expected to open next month.

"After more than 34 years of serving the citizens of this community, it is time to move on to the next chapter of my life," he says in his letter. He declined to say what that chapter would involve, although "I'm going to sit back and relax for a period of time."

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.