Alachua County Fire Rescue leader named Chief of the Year
Alachua County Fire Rescue Chief Harold Theus was named the 2025 Career Fire Chief of the Year by the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association last week.
Presented at the FFCA’s Executive Development Conference in Miami, the award is presented annually to a fire chief who demonstrates outstanding leadership, dedication, service to their community, and is someone their peers respect.
Alachua County Fire Rescue Chief Harold Theus, center, was named the 2025 Career Fire Chief of the Year at the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association Executive Development Conference in Miami.
Marking next week as Theus’ 31st anniversary with Alachua County Fire Rescue, he began his career in 1994 as a firefighter/emergency medical technician, became deputy chief in 2015 and assumed the role of fire chief in 2019 after then-Chief Bill Northcutt retired.
“I am truly humbled by this recognition,” Theus said in a news release. “It is a reflection of the shared commitment among the County Commission, county management staff, and every member of Alachua County Fire Rescue in our joint pursuit to provide excellent service to our community.”
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UF announces research spending record
The University of Florida announced on July 22 that its faculty conducted a record $1.33 billion in research.
The research spending data is based on UF’s response to the National Science Foundation’s annual Higher Education Research and Development, or HERD, Survey, which is the national standard in comparing research spending across universities around the country. The numbers reflect spending for the fiscal year that ended June 30. In the most recently finalized HERD report, based on 2023 fiscal year data, UF ranked 15th among public universities and 25th overall.
“This new record sends an unmistakable signal that the University of Florida’s research enterprise is a rock-solid powerhouse, and the important work our researchers are doing is absolutely vital to the great state of Florida, the nation and the world,” said Mori Hosseini, UF Board of Trustees chair. “We are grateful to our Congressional delegation for their strong support, and we are eager to keep contributing to Florida’s unmatchable economic success.”
Some of its significant research projects under way this year includes The Florida Semiconductor Institute which hopes to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry by strengthening domestic chip production and develop artificial intelligence algorithms to improve diagnostic accuracy at UF’s Cancer Center.
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Alachua County ranked 5th in state for recycling
Alachua County ranked fifth out of Florida’s 67 counties for recycling in 2024, improving from ranking sixth in the previous year.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s annual recycling report, the county achieved an overall recycling rate of 67%. In 2024, Alachua County reported recycling 201,872 tons of material and landfilling 260,758 tons of solid waste. On an individual level, the average Alachua County resident generated 3.97 pounds of landfilled garbage per day in 2024.
For three years in a row, Palm Beach County led the state with a 90% recycling rate, followed by Collier, Lee and Baker counties.
Under state law, all Florida counties are required to annually report their waste and recycling tonnages to the FDEP, which uses this data to calculate county-level and statewide recycling rates.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County Fire Rescue chief honored, UF hits research record