Bartow County Fire Chief Resigns After 14 Years At Helm

CARTERSVILLE, GA - Craig Millsap retired last Friday after 14 years as Bartow County fire chief and Emergency Management Agency director.

“It wasn't my plan to make a career with Bartow County," the 48-year-old Cartersville resident said, according to the Daily Tribune News. "Twenty-eight years later, here we are."

Millsap was appointed BCFD fire chief Jan. 4, 2006, and EMA director Dec. 4, 2017. Initially wanting to be a pre-med major in college, Millsap’s life took a turn when he enrolled in EMT school. He went to work with Bartow County EMS.

He only planned to do it for a few years in order to get hands-on medial experience and make money so as not to have to take out student loans, he told the Daily Tribune News.

“At some point, I guess, I decided that I kinda liked what I was doing and didn't want to stop."

So, he went to paramedic school and afterward cross-trained with the fire department and became a volunteer firefighter. Millsap became acquainted with emergency management through the county’s Under-Water Search and Recovery Dive Team, which was under that office.

In 1998, Millsap became deputy EMA director.

“After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, a lot of focus in public safety shifted toward emergency management and I went back to college and got my master’s degree in that field," he told the Daily Tribune News.

In the days leading up to his retirement, Millsap shared he experienced a “sense of excitement” and “sadness.”

Millsap has accepted another job offer, but said he couldn't discuss details.

“I have spent my entire adult life as a Bartow County employee,” Millsap said. “I find myself getting nostalgic when I leave certain meetings or places thinking, ‘that's probably the last time I will do that or go to this or wear that uniform.’

"Then I think about what I will miss most — the people," he told the Daily Tribune News.

"... some of whom have been there since my first day and for some reason took a 19-year-old kid under their wing and helped mold me into the man I am today.”

Millsap ran the department for a number of years of positive growth, then he had to lead during the very lean years beginning with the 2008 recession, Bartow County Administrator Peter Olson told the Daily Tribune News.

“The department went several years without buying any new fire engines," Olson said. Even in hard times, Millsap has been a good leader, he said.

"... (Millsap) leaves the department with many more capabilities than it had 15 years ago.”

Succeeding Millsap in both of his roles will be Dwayne Jamison, who previously served as BCFD’s deputy chief and deputy EMA director.