Campaigning on a public safety platform, Springfield’s new mayor has named former fire marshal Ed Canny the new chief, displacing Brandon Blough.

A challenge facing the fire department: adding women and minorities to the ranks.

“What we have instituted under Chief Blough, and we have been working hard over the past five to seven years, to work on our diversity within the fire department,” Canny told WTAX News. “It is a slow process but each class we have we have increased the number of our minorities on the fire department, and we look ti continue to do that moving forward.”

The department is in the midst of a building project. Canny says he hopes to cut ribbons at Eleventh and Ash Streets, Rickard Road, and Spaulding Orchard Road in about a year.