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Chester hires emergency management specialist to coordinate preparedness and industrial risk oversight
Summary
City of Chester introduced Brigitte Payne as its new emergency management specialist, a full-time position the city says will coordinate preparedness, response and mitigation with county and state partners and with local industrial operators.
City of Chester on July 23 introduced Brigitte Payne as the city’s new emergency management specialist, a full-time administrative position intended to lead preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation activities and to build relationships across municipal departments, county emergency management and state and federal partners.
Commissioner J.P. Shirley of the Chester Fire Department introduced Payne and said the position had been requested in internal memos dating back to 2009. Shirley told council the city needs a dedicated full-time emergency-manager “for a city, especially a city of our size.”
Ms. Payne told council she has 17 years of experience in emergency services and described the emergency management cycle as preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. “Preparedness is building partnerships before disaster occurs,” Payne said, adding that mitigation could include cleaning storm drains before heavy rains or operating cooling stations during heat waves. She said the municipal level is “the first line of defense” and that the city will call on county, state (PEMA) and federal (FEMA) resources if an incident exceeds local capacity.
Council members pressed Payne on day-to-day duties and interagency coordination. Payne said her routine work will include relationship-building across departments and local stakeholders so response “is not the first time” responders meet each other during an incident. The council discussed industrial chemical risks and rail shipments that pass through Chester; Payne and staff said the new role will strengthen local knowledge of hazardous inventories and coordination with county chemical specialists and state agencies.
The council framed the hire as a foundational step: Payne’s work will include damage assessment planning, coordination with police, fire, public works, health and industry, and developing systems for responders to access chemical safety data and tier 2 reporting when needed.
