About Chris

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Chris Krotche is an Armada resident who has committed his career to public service for more than 30 years. Most recently, Chris served as the Armada Township Fire Chief, retiring after four years of service in 2023. During his tenure, Chris helped to secured unprecedented grants for the department, served as a liaison between the surrounding communities to build collaboration, which paid dividends when Armada was hit with an EF-1 Tornado in July of 2021. 

As the incident commander, Chris provided leadership to his department, utility partners, county and state officials throughout the duration of the response. His leadership brought a calming, confident approach to what was the most significant weather event the Township has experienced.

During his tenure, Chris worked tirelessly to secure resources and funding to advance the fire department and township, working to secure more than $1.5 million in County, FEMA and Emergency Management grant funding. He did many desperately needed upgrades to the Fire Station, most with his time and skills as a licensed builder, saving the citizens tens of thousands of dollars.

As Armada Township Fire Chief, Chris is proud of the hard work of the entire department and the level of service they’ve provided the community in their times of greatest need. In just four years – in addition to providing leadership within and outside of the fire operation, Chris grew the department to meet the needs of the community in addition to growing the department’s reserve fund by 50 percent, leaving $1.3 million in funds upon his retirement in 2023 all while aggressively paying down lingering debt.

 During his tenure as Fire Chief, Chris was given and completed important tasks that were the responsibility of the supervisor, which included:

• Conducting several bid processes for township purchases and services
• Gathering and submitting necessary reports for funding reimbursement from the state for the historic tornado disaster       
• Worked with DTE, County Road commission and private contractors to add 12 emergency sirens for the township to get 100% coverage for the Township

Additional accomplishments include:

• Greatly improved staffing to serve the community
• Helped to Secured $1.5 million in in County and Federal grant funding 
• Secured COVID related funding for the township
• Implemented full-time emergency dispatch services 
• Addition of EMS incident command and a second fire inspector
• Advanced investigation credentials of Fire Marshall for in-house/origin investigations
• Reduced debt, paying off outstanding loans early and saving the department in interest costs
• Improved the station facilities without incurring additional debt or cost to taxpayers

Chris is a family man through and through, married 28 years to Melissa, with his son Jeffrey who recently started a career as a Fire Fighter Paramedic, and daughter Sarah pursuing a degree in nursing. He is a licensed residential home builder with significant remodeling experience. He enjoys hunting, fishing, golfing, his tractor, tinkering in his barn and spending time with his family. He has attended Rockpointe Community Church with his family for the last 30 years.