Petillo, Jobeless Named Honorary Fire Dept. Members

History was made in Hopatcong on Sunday.

The Hopatcong fire department named Superintendent Ron Jobeless and Mayor Sylvia Petillo its first honorary members during a ceremony dedicating a monument to the department.

Individual Hopatcong fire companies have named honorary members before. But Fire Chief Mike Rahill said he believed Petillo and Jobeless were the first honorary members of the entire department.

"This monument was so much the work of the firefighters putting out the fires," Rahill said. "This monument would exist without [Petillo and Jobeless]. It was their dedications, their phone calls. THey actually took it on as kind of a mission and worked hard to do it."

Both Petillo and Jobeless said they were caught off guard by the honor, but welcomed it.

"This is extremely unexpected," Petillo said. "But I do want to say something. I talked about all theories and all the danger but I didn't talk about how the excitement begins when the fire department shows up. There's another side of this department, and that's the dies of the love of the community.

"They are tremendous supporters and people that just do amazing outreaches for this town that so many people don't see. But I see it. And I've seen it since I became a council person and the mayor and I've never been more proud than I am today of this department."

Jobeless agreed.

"These guys don't give that kind of stuff away," he said of the honorary membership. "They have an almost 100-year history. I'm definitely humbled by the whole thing. I had just come up for support and to show up for them like they show up for everything we do."