'Bittersweet moment': Gainesville Fire Rescue Chief Joe Dixon stepping down

Gainesville City Manager Cynthia Curry in a memorandum to commissioners on Thursday announced that Gainesville Fire Rescue Chief Joe Dixon has decided to resign from his position effective Sept. 20.

"Although he is leaving to move closer to family and I am pleased he has this opportunity, it is a bittersweet moment for our organization ," Curry wrote. " ... His service to our community leaves it a better place, and the team he has trained is excellent. I have confidence they will successfully lead us through a seamless and productive transition."

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward at the start of the afternoon session of Thursday's City Commission meeting, thanked Dixon for his service to the city and his professionalism on the job.

"I appreciate you and I have appreciated having you be a part of our community as well as our city organization," Ward said.

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Ward then invited Dixon up to the lectern.

"I certainly appreciate the opportunity that was afforded to me by the city of Gainesville when I cam here in 2021, and until the day that I leave I will continue to serve in the manner I feel best shows how I care about every member (of the community) — LGBTQ, red, white, Black, blue — that we're going to serve," he said. "The standard is excellence and excellence is standard."

Dixon previously served as fire chief in Goldsboro, North Carolina, before coming to Gainesville in March 2021 to replace Jeff Lane, who retired in September 2020. Dixon also spent 25 years with the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services just outside Baltimore.

According to Curry's memorandum, Dixon has helped grow the city's Community Resource Paramedicine program by making it a priority and, as a special advisor to the city manager on issues of public safety, he has helped craft the city's initiatives to address homelessness and gun violence.

Earlier this year Gainesville Fire Rescue was awarded for the third time in its history the prestigious Accredited Agency Status by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.

"It has been an extreme pleasure. Chief Dixon has been one of our executive leaders that I have relied on 150 percent," Curry said at the city meeting. "... On behalf of the entire community-building team of the city and our executive team, which you've joined over the last year, I want to thank you, sir."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: 'Bittersweet moment': Gainesville Fire Rescue Chief Joe Dixon stepping down