Greene County will need to hire a new individual for a position that has been filled for over 30 years.

Dennis Morlan served as the Greene County Emergency Management Coordinator for close to 35 years and recently retired from the position. Earlier this week, the Greene County Board of Supervisors appointed Sheriff Jack Williams to assume the duties of the position until the County Emergency Management Commission can recommend someone to fulfill those responsibilities on a permanent basis. Williams talks about why he stepped up to take on the extra job duties in an interim period.

“It’s not something that I wanted to do by any means. But the qualifications are very stringent by the state and there’s only a few people that are actually qualified to do it, currently. They (the supervisors) asked if I would be willing to do it temporarily until we could find somebody and I agreed to do so.”

Some of the responsibilities as emergency management coordinator include working with emergency personnel whenever there is a natural disaster or a weather related incident, seeking funds to help with mass cleanup efforts, and finding shelter for individuals who are impacted if needed. 

Greene County Supervisor Chair John Muir appreciates the years of service Morlan gave as emergency management coordinator and recalls one of the last issues he helped tackle was handling the height of the pandemic. He says when they first organized a local emergency committee, Morlan wasn’t completely on board, but during the peak of the pandemic, his willingness to help changed. 

“As a gauge of how tuned in we needed to be to the pandemic, at a point Dennis was very adamant that, ‘This is what we need to be doing to try and deter this and to address it for the safety of our citizens.’ When there was a point in the pandemic when we needed to really be paying attention and trying to get everybody engaged he let us know.” 

Muir says the commission is made up of the sheriff, a supervisor, and all the mayors in the county. He anticipates having someone hired before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1, 2022.