Emergency management and fire marshal outline rising mission workload, EOC and equipment needs

Pender County—s emergency management director and the county fire marshal briefed commissioners on mission activity, equipment and staffing needs tied to an active year of responses and to the county—s growth.

Emergency management summary: The county director reported that the office answered or supported more than 100 missions in the most recent calendar period and that the office activated alerting systems more than 200 times this year for on-call requests from partner agencies. The office asked the county for a modest operational contingency of $35,000 to cover startup and activation costs during incidents, and it described capital priorities that include mobile command capability and river-gauge monitoring.

River gauges and flood monitoring: Emergency management presented a plan to expand river gauges around the county; county staff said the FY25-26 packet includes funding for a gauge at Lanes Ferry and noted a plan to use available project funds to install multiple gauges in a single year if state partners will assume maintenance. The director said the gauges are intended to provide upstream data to help decision-making during high-water events.

Warehouse, equipment and mobile command: The office listed capital items and logistics priorities including a covered storage pad for storm equipment, mobile lighting towers, and radio/vehicle repeater work to improve in-vehicle radio range for first responders; some items were proposed earlier but cut in the packet.

Staffing and on-call coverage: The emergency-management office is a small team that currently shares on-call duties; the director said the office—s two-person core logged about 1,200 on-call hours beyond normal work-time in the last 12 months and requested an additional coordinator position (with vehicle) as its top staffing priority. Commissioners and staff discussed grant opportunities, shared regional resources and the need to stagger equipment replacement to manage long-term capital costs.

Fire marshal highlights: The fire marshal reported the new stand-alone office completed 1,376 inspections in the last reporting period and has begun aligning fee schedules with neighboring counties. The marshal said the office is handling mandatory inspections for schools, childcare and foster-care homes and has taken point on community-risk reduction programs (car-seat checks, smoke-alarm canvasses and senior-safety outreach) partnered with the Red Cross, State Farm and other nonprofits. The marshal requested that the board consider moving the marshal—s salary closer to peer averages for comparable jurisdictions and pointed to a conservative estimate that a formal permit/fee program could capture roughly $90,000 annually for county services if the county chooses to charge for non-routine operational permits.

Ending: County staff and the departments will pursue grant opportunities, confirm maintenance commitments for gauges with state partners, and return to the commissioners with detailed cost estimates and recommendations on the coordinator position and capital items.