Mark McCoy, who identified himself as the community emergency response team (CERT) leader for Bourbon County, spoke during public comment on Jan. 12 about the countymergency management function.

McCoy described CERT's volunteer history in the county and said the group currently has roughly five active volunteers, down from about 14 in the past. He urged the commissioners to ensure an emergency manager or reliable part-time designee is in place because "emergencies don't work on a shared schedule" and initial coordination in the first hour is critical.

He noted prior practices such as MOUs used to transfer residents of senior facilities to hospitals during outages and recommended integrating CERT into official emergency plans and grant applications when possible. McCoy said CERT had limited funds historically and that any new or replacement emergency manager role had previously been funded through an end-of-year grant application process; he told commissioners he would help recruit candidates if asked.

Commissioners confirmed the emergency manager position was posted on the county website and directed interested applicants to apply; they also encouraged McCoy to forward potential candidates.