GROVELAND, FL — In small town Southside, AL, along the meandering Coosa River, there’s a house with longtime Groveland Fire Chief Willie Morgan’s name on it.
If all goes as planned, a year or so from now the house will become the new home of Morgan and his wife, Donna.
Morgan, who’s been at the helm of the Groveland Fire Department for 44 years, soon will relinquish his position as chief to take on a new one short-term assignment. He’ll become project manager of the city’s soon-to-be-built 33,000-square-foot, $13 million Public Safety Complex.
Construction should be underway soon and once it’s complete Morgan plans to leave city government for good and head to his riverfront retirement home 530 miles away in northern Alabama. His timetable for that happening is no later than December 2020.
“It’s a nice river and the home’s second floor needs finishing so I’ll have something to work on,” the 68-year-old chief said. “We’re both looking forward to less traffic and a little more relaxation.”
Initially, after announcing his intentions to retire in the coming year, Morgan planned to stay on as fire chief while also serving as project manager. But after discussing it with city leaders he decided to transition into that role full time as soon as the construction trailer pops up on the complex’s site on State Road 50, next to Tractor Supply.
“I wanted to give them some time to find someone, but I’ll retire as chief when the trailer goes up,” said Morgan, who has a degree in public policy from the University of Central Florida.
“I grew up in Groveland and my entire career has been here,” he said. “I’ll miss it but I’m excited about the future of the city and the fire department.”
The father of three adult children, who was born in North Carolina, began his career with Groveland in 1975, shortly after he was persuaded by a high school friend to take a course in firefighting and join the tiny all-volunteer fire department.
It wasn’t long though before he was asked to actually lead it.
“The volunteer chief resigned to take a paying job and they didn’t have anyone else to ask,” Morgan joked. “You had to live in the city to be chief and no one else did.”
In 1999, Morgan became the city’s first chief when it converted to a full-time paid firefighting force. He has seen the department grow from a handful of volunteers with a small truck to nearly two dozen career firefighters with modern firefighting engines in one of the fastest-growing cities in Central Florida.
Over the years, Morgan has seen his share of devastating structure fires, horrible accidents and other harrowing incidents. He said one in particular, during his all-volunteer department days, stands out.
“We got a call about a house fire, and by the time we got there it was really going,” he said. “A little girl was still inside.”
“Two of my men went in and brought her out. She was unconscious,” he recalled. “I still remember them coming out with her to this day, she was probably only 5 or 6 years old.
“We handed her over to the ambulance guys because we didn’t have the training and equipment that we do now,” he said. “They got her breathing again and took her to the hospital. She lived.”
Morgan, who also served as interim city manager in 2013 and was a City Council member before he became a professional firefighter, said he’ll be a little sad to not occupy the Public Safety Complex when it opens but is excited that the long overdue project is finally getting underway.
“We started planning the complex years ago, and were going to build it until the recession came and forced us to table it...,” he said. “It’ll be something Groveland can be proud of when it’s finished.”
It’ll be “kinda like building a house and never getting to live in it though."
Still, a slower-paced-life and a certain peaceful river beckon, said Morgan, who has three children and four grandchildren.
“I fished a little when I was a boy, so I might try that again,” he said. “But that second floor will keep me busy if I don’t like it.”
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