The Salem City Council Monday night unanimously approved Mayor Nic Farley’s appointment of Andrew Strong to head the Emergency Management Agency.
Strong, who has been assistant director, will move into the top spot on May 23rd. That’s the day retiring Director Terry Mulvaney will step down when reaching his 43rd year of service.
Mayor Nic Farley is looking forward to Strong’s leadership.
“He has a work history there and is excited about the opportunity to lead that department. He has some great ideas to attract new volunteers. He has some ideas on some things we haven’t done in the past he would like to do in bringing technology into the emergency management arena. I think he is very well suited to do that job.”
Strong says he has big shoes to fill and a lot to learn from Mulvaney. One of his goals is to get younger people involved. He plans to go to the schools to do that.
“They would be interested in first responder-type roles, but the police or fire department may be too much for them to handle or something. By working with the schools and getting them a taste of what emergency management does may open up some possibilities for the younger kids.”
Strong says emergency response is changing as well, opening new opportunities.
“Moving forward, I’d love the roster to be 20 or 25. With the drone program and some of the other programs we are looking at implementing a little further down the road, if all the stars align, I don’t think that is a hard number to obtain.”
Right now there are less than 10 volunteers in the Emergency Management Agency as they have experienced the same type of drop in volunteerism seen by many other organizations.
Strong feels there is another big need the Emergency Management Agency could fill.
“We’ve had some very close calls over the years in Marion County. There have been some unfortunate fatality incidents. We have a dive team to the south of us. We have a dive teams to the north of us and in other directions, but everybody’s a couple of hours away. That’s kind of changing. Police and fire have so much to do already it is hard for them to take on a program like that. That’s kind of what I’m looking at, how to help emergency responders already in place maybe take something off their shoulders we can implement.”
Meanwhile, Mulvaney will not completely retire. He plans to remain a volunteer and help in the transition. Both the EMA Director and Assistant Director are part-time positions. Before working with EMA, Strong spent 12 years on the Salem Fire Protection District.
