Four Marion County Fire Chiefs came before the County Board’s Law Enforcement Committee Tuesday night to address rumors and concerns over the future direction of the county’s Emergency Management Agency. Board Chair Steve Whritenour quickly jumped in to try and alleviate the fears and explain plans for EMA under new director Andrew Strong going forward.
The concerns were over the county Emergency Management Agency response when not being called and rumors of the agency planning to duplicate services already available through the fire departments.
Salem Fire Chief Jim Cerny spoke for the group that included the Odin, Kell and Iuka chiefs.
“My interpretation of EMA is that they are not first responders,” Cerny said. “They are there to supplement the first responders if we don’t have enough equipment, technology, and manpower.”
Whritenour agreed with Cerny’s definition and emphasized duplication of services was not the plan going forward.
“Once we get the foundation set, that’s when we’re going to go out to not just the fire chiefs, but also law enforcement agencies that are in the county and to see, what do we have?” Whritenour said. “I think that’s the time when we have that meeting and determine what we can provide, as Marion County EMA, for the rest of the county. We have to get our foundation set first. I understand the rumors, I understand the talk and everything that’s gone out. Andrew has reassured me that we’re not self-dispatching the calls.”
Whritenour says some of the confusion came because Salem Emergency Management Agency in the past did self-dispatch. He says the lack of self-response in two recent incidents in Salem drew concern from City Manager Lisa Peck when EMA didn’t show up. Salem will not be like other county emergency response agencies in having to call the sheriff’s department to be dispatched to the scene.
Whritenour and Strong both believe talk of long range plans may be driving the rumors.
“It’s not a 24/7 we’re running this nonstop,” Strong said. “It’s where if there’s a big incident and there are extra resources needed, we’re looking at what are things we could do to have in place that have never been in place before or available from an EMA around here. We’re not just coming up with this out of the blue, we’ve talked to EMAs throughout the state, because we’re looking at what assets are needed.”
Strong says the Marion County EMA will no longer do parking for civic events because it does not fall under emergency response.
Later in the meeting Strong described the poor condition of the Marion County agency he found when coming over from the city. There were only two working vehicles, a non-working generator for the building, and piles of old radios. Strong told the law enforcement committee his top priorities was to get a new generator, make structural improvements to the building, and working to get five working vehicles. The county has $60,000 in this year’s budget to begin improvements. An effort will be made to sell an older ambulance with some value as well as other vehicles that appear to be junk to raise additional funds.
Board member Cody Rose, who is over the EMA subcommittee, says he is working on launching a website that will have updated procedures. He wants the agency to work on hazardous material capabilities.
Whritenour reported the agreement to merge the Salem Emergency Management Agency into the county organization will come before the full county board at its meeting later this month. Once, that agreement is approved, the county EMA will receive the three working Salem Emergency Management vehicles.
