Douglas County to bring emergency management functions back in-house
Submitted by paula on Wed, 10/12/2022 - 9:54pm
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - With unusual and more frequent emergencies facing Douglas County they will move to have a full-time in-house emergency management team and no longer contract with East Fork Fire District to do that service.
East Fork Fire took over the county's emergency management functions in 2007 and the services had been done in-house prior to that. A department director used to have that responsibility and by bringing it in-house the County will create an updated emergency plan, something that is out of date.
Emergency management is a County function, and not always just fire, said County Manager Patrick Cates during the County Commissioner's meeting last week. He said incident management will still fall under East Fork when it's a fire, under Douglas County Sheriffs if law enforcement, depending on the nature of the emergency.
COVID-19, active shooters, infrastructure, and civil unrest, are just a few areas that need to be included in the management plan. With the contract with East Fork Fire District ending in June 2023, Cates said they need to get going now to prepare for the change.
East Fork Fire Chief Tod Carlini has done a magnificate job taking on the extra management duties, said Commissioner Wes Rice during the meeting.
East Fork is always going to be part of emergency management, said Cates, just as Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District is.
The first task for Cates will be to hire an Emergency Management director who would set up the office and prepare for the July 1, 2023 change. Then a coordinator would come on and work on policies and coordination. The County's Emergency Communications director will be retiring soon, giving them an opportunity to restructure that position as well.
Douglas County had been paying East Fork Fire about $255,000 yearly for the emergency management contact. Cates said the County would be able to handle those functions and department restructure for about $225,000.
The commissioners voted 5-0 on this issue.