OTTUMWA — Joshua Stevens has been named Wapello County’s new emergency management coordinator.

He will begin July 6 with a yearly salary of $36,000; his office will be located at the Wapello County Law Center.

Stevens is from Oskaloosa and has worked as the assistant emergency management coordinator for Mahaska County. Stevens beat out over eight candidates for the job.

“He had the most experience in emergency management,” said Wapello County Supervisor Jerry Parker, chairman of the local emergency management commission. “He was from the area, and he had ties with other emergency management coordinators around, so working with them on different events would be easy right away.”

Parker said all nine candidates had something to offer, but Stevens had a strong educational background and impressive work experience.

In the past, the Ottumwa Fire Chief has been split his time as fire chief and as the county’s emergency management coordinator. Now, both positions are full-time, and the emergency management coordinator is a county employee.

Stevens will answer to the emergency management commission, which includes mayors of seven towns in the county, the Wapello County sheriff and a county supervisor.

“The job of coordinator is mainly that; they’re not going to carry people out of the hospital if it is hit by a tornado; their job is to coordinate the whole activity,” Parker said.

“These people don’t just work when there’s a flood or tornado or a major fire. The difficult work is the hours and weeks and months ahead of that when they have to prepare for those.”

Stevens’ salary comes from the emergency management budget, which is funded through property taxes and federal emergency management money through the state, Parker said.

Pat Shaver can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at p.shaver@ottumwacourier.com.