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By Michele Smith
The Times 

Inside the Columbia County Emergency Management Department

 

November 5, 2020

Michele Smith

Emergency Management Department Director Ashley Strickland in his office inside the county courthouse.

DAYTON-Columbia County Emergency Management Director Ashley Strickland usually devotes ninety percent of his working time to the E911 Dispatch Center and the remaining ten percent to emergency management.

That went out the window during the first six months of the year.

He found himself spending only ten percent of his time with the Dispatch center, and the other ninety percent in emergency management, all because of the February flood and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The county has a responsibility to protect county infrastructure, but in emergency management that can extend out to citizens in the community," he explained.

Strickland said every morning at 11:30, he had to report into the state's emergency operations, trying to figure out the logistics of getting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for COVID-19 into the county, storing it, and distributing it.

He said when Dayton General Hospital ran critically short, early on, he and CEO Shane McGuire determined not to allow that to happen again. There is now a substantial supply of PPE, stored in a secure, long-term, climate-controlled building.


Strickland has also been responsible for managing disaster declarations for both the February flood disaster and COVID-19. He said he signed off and entered declarations onto the FEMA grant portal.

He has finally returned to a more normal workload, dealing with stalled projects, including getting Text to 911 registered and ready to go live.

Strickland said there are longstanding issues with the communications equipment that still need to be addressed.


"Equipment is the biggest challenge," he said.

The radio system wasn't built as an engineered system and has not been adequately maintained, according to Strickland.

A faulty microwave at the Thorn Hill radio site has caused a communication breakdown between first responders out in the field and the 911 Dispatch center.

"When we lose that link, we lose communication everywhere in the county, except for here in Dayton. All the first responders out in the field can still talk to each other. It's just that we can't talk to them," he said. "It's a mess."

Almost every piece of equipment in the Thorn Hill building has been replaced, and a second microwave link has been added.

"None of that is cheap," Strickland said. "We need an engineered system that is designed from the ground up."


Strickland is also relying on grants for the radio system and for the proposed Law and Justice Center building to be located next to the Public Works Department.

The County has requested help for the cost of the Law and Justice Center building from the state Legislature.

"It sounds like they are interested in helping us with the whole thing. But even if they don't, we have USDA grants to pay for it, and other funding sources, which are for funding public safety buildings," he said. "My goal is that we don't use money out of the county's budget."

Moving Emergency Management Department operations out of the cramped space inside the courthouse would address many problems.

Strickland pointed to the 1920s era water pipes overhead. A burst pipe could cause one million dollars in damages to the Dispatch Center, along with the failure of 911 communications, he said.


As if he weren't dealing with enough, he is also tackling the County's payroll system.

Shortly after he was hired, he took a look at the department pay schedule and saw that a newly hired person would get the same rate of pay as a six-year employee.

That led to outreach with other department managers.

"There are 18 different pay schedules, and every department has its own. It's not uniform, at all, across the board," he said.

Also, pay schedules are not set up for the length of employment or merit increases, and the current increases are too high.

Strickland, Jessica Atwood in the Clerk's Office, and County Treasurer Carla Rowe are on the new Policy Committee for the Pay Schedule, overseen by County Commissioner Ryan Rundell.


Nine people work in the Emergency Management Department. Misty Yost is the office manager, and Desi Lockard is the 911 Dispatch supervisor.

Dispatchers are; Felice Weins, Emilio Macias, Kelli Wessels, Tiffany Baxter, Sierra Faflik, Nyla Holt, and Lauri Richardson. Strickland said there is one position left to fill.

Strickland said dispatchers make one of the county's highest salaries, but they are hard to come by.

"Where I came from before, we would have 500 people applying for two fireman positions, and 100 people applying for an office job," he said.

Strickland brought an impressive set of skills with him when he was hired in Feb. 2018. He worked on developing a statewide radio system for the state of Ohio and oversaw the merger of four dispatch centers and 21 agencies into one center in Indiana. He is also a prior fire captain.


 

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