The Logan County Board of Commissioners will be looking for a new Emergency Manager as David Ball submitted his resignation to pursue other opportunities on February 12. Ball’s last day on the job will be Feb. 26. Ball has been in the position for 13 years and had seen the county through the wildfires of 2014, the floods of 2019, the tornado of 2011, the ice storm of 2020, the fairground floods in 2019 to name a few.
Ball has also been an asset to various state emergencies including various wildfires and works closely with the various volunteer fire departments in Logan County. The City of Guthrie has also used Ball over the years and have a working agreement with the county to share in his expenses. That issue recently came under fire from the Board of Commissioners as they wanted Guthrie to pay for a bigger share of the cost.
Whoever is the new emergency manager will have some big projects on their plate, as the commissioners decided to move the emergency office out of the courthouse annex to expand the conference room so organizing the new location will be a task and then there is the follow-up with FEMA on the ice storm damage working through to get their assistance with the clean-up throughout the county. Ball is also working on a burn curtain grant for the commissioners with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to be able to burn some of the ice storm debris. The commissioners have one curtain already in District 3 in Crescent and they cost around $70,000, unfortunately they are not the easiest things to move from district to district.