Kyle Fire Chief Glenn Whitaker tendered his resignation Feb. 11 from the organization he has served for more than three decades.

Whitaker said he was "not happy with the current relationship with the ESD [emergency services district]," which oversees the department's operations, and decided to tender his resignation after a board meeting Feb. 11. He and his wife, Doris, who handled much of the department's financial matters, submitted pre-written letters offering their resignation after the meeting.

"The upside is that I'll be able to sleep all night, every night," Whitaker said. "That's typically not the case. I usually get woken up at least one or two times during the night."

Whitaker served with the fire department for three decades as a volunteer before being brought on as a salaried employee on June 29, 2009. He was elected fire chief in 1999.

"I enjoyed doing the job," Whitaker said. "I can drive around town and there are houses that are still standing because I went in and put the fire out. I assume there are still people walking around because either I or my crews helped them."

The Kyle Fire Department is a combination volunteer and paid department that came under the purview of ESD No. 5 in the summer 2012.

"Myself and my staff ran the department, and now the ESD wants to run it," Whitaker said. "They want to tell me how to operate, and I just don't agree with them all the time, so I decided to do something else."

Justice of the Peace Beth Smith, who serves on the ESD No. 5 board, said Whitaker would be missed, but residents within the district could take comfort knowing there would still be a "professional level of expertise."

"We're losing a lot of experience, and I'm very saddened by this," Smith said. "[The community] will definitely feel a loss of Chief Whitaker, personally and emotionally, but they're not going to have a lack of service. Nothing is going to change as far as the effective service we give now."

Smith said the board will hold special meetings to determine a timeline for hiring a new fire chief. The board will also appoint an interim fire chief in the coming weeks.