{"id":70168,"date":"2026-05-22T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/70168\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:49:12","slug":"city-of-geneva-fire-chief-retiring-new-chief-appointed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/70168\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Geneva Fire Chief retiring, new chief appointed"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN<\/a>) \u2014 Geneva city officials announced Thursday that the city\u2019s fire chief will retire this summer.<\/p>\n

Geneva Fire Chief Mike Antenore announced his retirement this week after leading the department for 10 years;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

his last day on the job will be August 14, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeneva is grateful to Chief Antenore for his tenure as Fire Chief and decades-long service as a firefighter,\u201d Mayor Kevin Burns said. \u201cHis leadership, passion and selfless contributions are immeasurable, and his legacy is defined by cultivating a fire department rooted in compassion and commitment to public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: Geneva Fire Chief Mike Antenore. Courtesy of City of Geneva.)<\/p>\n

Antenore has worked with Geneva Fire Department for the past 30 years, when he began his career as paid-on-call firefighter in 1996. He also served as a part-time engineer and lieutenant before he was appointed Fire Chief in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am both honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to serve the Geneva community for the past 30 years,\u201d Chief Antenore said. \u201cIt has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to work alongside the men and women of the Geneva Fire Department. The members are dedicated professionals and are committed to serving our residents, businesses and visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Geneva City Council has appointed Deputy Chief Matt Lohse as the city\u2019s next fire chief. He will start in the new position this summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lohse began his career as a firefighter in 1999. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2015 and to deputy chief in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving served this department and community for more than two decades, I understand both the responsibility and privilege that come with this role,\u201d Lohse said. \u201cIt is truly an honor to continue leading the men and women of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: \u00a0Deputy Chief Matt Lohse. Courtesy of City of Geneva.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is truly an honor to continue leading the men and women of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city showed their gratitude to the officials, saying in a social media post<\/a>: \u201cThank you both for your many years of dedicated service to the Geneva community!\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN – wdhn.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) \u2014 Geneva city officials announced Thursday that the city\u2019s fire chief will retire this summer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[37527,37530,37529,65,3733,37528],"class_list":["post-70168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-chief-antenore","tag-deputy-chief","tag-fire-chief","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-city-council","tag-mike-antenore"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116617135088840907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}