County may shift focus of emergency office

The Daily Inter Lake

The Flathead County commissioners are considering some potential changes for the Office of Emergency Services, including shifting the department's focus.

Former OES Director Alan Marble resigned and moved to Arizona in June.

The county has advertised the position twice since then. About a half-dozen candidates have been interviewed, but none received a job offer.

In a brief discussion on Thursday, the commissioners said they didn't see any need to rush filling the position.

Based on the type of emergencies that the county is likely to experience - fires, floods, hazardous material spills, possibly earthquakes - they felt other responders were already in place to address these situations.

For example, a recent fuel spill on Flathead Lake was capably handled by the Somers Volunteer Fire Department and county hazardous-materials team. Several local, state and federal agencies also are ready to respond to any wildfires this summer.

However, the commissioners might be interested in hiring a part-time, interim director as long as the individual already has experience in the emergency services field.

Longer term, the commissioners said they're considering shifting the director's position away from Marble's response-oriented focus to more of a coordinating role - "someone who knows how to get resources to the people who need them," was how Commissioner Joe Brenneman expressed it.

Brenneman, a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician, has been helping oversee the office since Marble left.