BY NORMA LERNER

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. -- David Smith, Cass County's Emergency Management and Homeland Security coordinator, is making his way around the townships to introduce himself and talk about emergency management.

Recently he spoke to the Cass County Board of Commissioners. One of the first questions asked of his report, the first one given since his hire in the county six months ago, came from board Vice Chairman Ronald Francis, of Cassopolis, who asked how many sirens are in the county and in the case of emergency what was the chain of command.

Smith said his duty is to report to the chairman of the board, Robert Wagel, of Dowagiac. His next reportable command is to the E-911 dispatch office in Cassopolis and to the county sheriff, Joseph Underwood Jr. Smith said the city of Dowagiac has three fire sirens to warn residents, and there are 12 to 15 more sirens in the county, mostly at fire stations.

Last year in April, Wayne Township installed a siren between north and south Twin Lakes. It is to warn people of approaching bad weather and to immediately check with their radio or television announcements. He said the township paid 25 percent of a matching grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its cost. It is tested once a month on a Saturday, but the warning siren comes out of E-911 dispatching.

He said when the sirens go off, people are to take cover immediately.

Smith said he has attended three township meetings so far and has made presentations at Silver Creek Community Awareness meetings, the Citizen Police Academy, Dowagiac Rotary, the Marcellus Lions Club and Certified Emergency Response Training.

Smith has completed training in CERT; CAMEO, a database and mapping program; Michigan Emergency Management workshops; filling out large-scale incident command forms; 2007 Emergency Operations and was an exercise evaluator for the Allegan County Emergency Management simulated airport plane crash. He participated in Elkhart County tornado clean up as a volunteer.

He attends eight monthly emergency-related meetings and is appointed to four emergency planning committees. He has responded to two severe weather tornado warning areas, one in Berrien County and one in Cass County, a gas line break at a pizza restaurant and a shelter opening in Marcellus because of a power outage.

He is also involved in receiving and tracking four emergency and hazardous materials grants through June 1, 2010. So far, about $20,000 has been funded from the grants.

Copyright 2008 Kalamazoo Gazette