Stephen Jones' stint as Lillian's Fire Chief will extend another 60 days, Jones said Tuesday.

Jones took over as the town's interim fire chief March 28, and the interim title holds for 60 days. The town's board of directors had the option either to find a new chief, re-elect Jones as interim chief for another 60-day period or make Jones the permanent chief. The last day in the first interim period was Thursday; and Jones said the board elected to go with another 60-day term.

"I've already been asked if I would go for another 60 days, and the firefighters were asked about electing me," Jones said. "I told them to put me on for another 60 days."

Jones said one of the reasons he wants to stay interim chief for now is because he wants "to get some stuff straightened out" in regards to department records.

"We've been through some turmoil, and when I say turmoil I don't mean our people," Jones said, noting the problems were due to the transition phase. "We had some things missing. I had to have someone working on the computer for two days to get stuff back on there, and it's little things like that. I had some personnel files missing and I immediately filed a police report on that. After that, some of the files turned back up."

Jones took over as interim fire chief amid personnel overhauls and a rotating door of chiefs.

Ray Hogans resigned as the town's fire chief on March 22. That same day, nine volunteer firefighters followed in resignation, dropping the staff size from 28 to 19.

On March 28, the fire department's Board of Directors dismissed three firefighters, one of which was the interim fire chief, Tracy Emily.

Once Jones took over, the staff jumped back up to 25 volunteers within a couple weeks. There currently are 30 firefighters on staff, Jones said last week.

Jones said he has been turning away potential volunteers because of the staff size, and the department is about to implement a new background procedure.

"Including the ones that are already here, everyone will have a background check on them," he said. "This will be done by a private company. If they don't agree to a background check, they turn their gear in."

The funding for the checks is being taken care of by the board of directors, Jones said.