Mayor wants to create disaster command station

Published 11:23 pm Tuesday, May 12, 2009

MAPLESVILLE — The recent severe weather that has raced through the area in recent weeks has taken its toll on the town of Maplesville. Downed trees and power lines, roof damage and trees into houses have been a constant for the town recently.

Due to the severe weather and resulting damage, volunteers have often come to the town offering assistance to local residents. And, Maplesville Mayor Kurt Wallace wants to ensure the next time help is needed and volunteers arrive that the town is ready to coordinate an organized response.

“The more organized we are in coordinating help and knowing which areas need to be helped, the more often volunteers will come to help us out,” Wallace told the town council during their monthly meeting Tuesday. “But, if we are not organized and confused, they will get frustrated and not as much will get done.”

Wallace told the council, he and officials with the Maplesville Volunteer Fire Department, will work to schedule a meeting with Chilton County Emergency Management Agency Director Bill Collum about establishing a command and control center at the fire station.

As part of that plan, the station will be equipped with a generator and radio or cellular phone system to serve as a central location to coordinate a response to any emergency.

Wallace simply informed the council his intentions to meet with Collum to begin putting together what would need to be done in order to make such a command and control facility possible.