“I come in with a business approach. Mine is a community-based style of service. We need to be accountable to the citizens, giving the very best we can.” Those are the words of new Coweta County Fire Department Chief Johnny Teeters, who will begin work Jan. 1.

Recently retired after nearly 40 years with Greensboro, North Carolina Fire Department, Teeters said Coweta County fit the bill for the continuation of his career. Regulations prohibit him taking another chief’s position elsewhere in North Carolina, so his search to continue hthat career brought him to Georgia and Coweta County.

“I always told my wife and co-workers that when I retired I wanted to go to a smaller community with high quality of life, take my skills and try to make incremental improvements,” Teeters said Tuesday.

Teeters began his career as a firefighter in 1970 and moved up through the ranks, serving as chief in Greensboro since 1999. Teeters made his mark on the Greensboro department, explaining that Greensboro is nationally accredited and was the first Class 1 ISO-rated and re-accredited fire department in the world. People came from all over the world to see the department’s operation, he said.

Teeters spoke about what he had learned over 4 decades in firefighting and about the aggressive need for training and preparation, saying “My number 1 thing is the safety of my people.”

“I am looking forward to meeting with the men and women of the fire department and give the taxpayers the benefit of their tax dollars,” Teeters said.

Teeters will enter a department that has an $8.7 million budget with 125 staff and 14 fire stations. Also on his plate will be implementing the recently passed fire bond. Voters Nov. 4 approved $20 million for items such as a new headquarters, a new station in the southwest side of Coweta, the acquisition of two new ladder trucks and two tanker trucks and a new communication system to tie in with all Coweta’s public safety efforts.

Teeters has received statewide honors with selections to serve on the North Carolina State Hazardous Materials Certification Board, Secretary of the North Carolina Association of Hazardous Materials Responders, Hazardous Materials Transportation Act Committee and Promotional Assessment Boards for various North Carolina cities. He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Protection Association and Fire Department Safety Officer Association, Fire Commission and State Certification Board and is currently the President of the North Carolina Fire Chiefs Association. Chief Teeters serves on North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley’s State Emergency Response Commission and chairs the state’s Homeland Security Funding Committee.

Chief Teeters attended Guilford College and majored in Business Administration. He received an Associates Degree in Applied Science, Fire Protection Technology, from Guilford Technical Community College in 1997. He also attended the University of Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the North Carolina Justice Academy the North Carolina State Fire College and the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.