By Tim Stonesifer
The Evening Sun
HANOVER, Pa. — Penn Township’s new emergency-management coordinator is a Hanover native with experience in emergency services at both the local and county levels, he said this week.
Jeremy Sparks was appointed to head the township’s emergency response after a unanimous vote of the Penn Township commissioners Monday night.
Sparks, 26, was born and raised in Hanover, and has four years experience as a 911 dispatcher for the county as well as 15 years with the Penn Township Fire Department. For nearly as long as he can remember, he’s wanted to serve the community and help others, he said after the vote.
And Sparks said his first task — after his appointment takes effect on Oct. 1 — will be to update an emergency operations plan that’s gone more than a year without any significant work.
“It’s going to take some effort to get it back up to par,” he said. “But we have some of the best emergency operations people in the county right here, so we’ll get it done.”
The township’s emergency-management coordinator position had been open since March 2009, when former coordinator Philip Stegos died. Since then, Fire Chief Jan Cromer and Fire Police Capt. Dale Crabbs have filled in.
Township Manager Jeffrey Garvick said this week the township received nine applications for the position. The board based its final decision on experience and familiarity with emergency planning, he said.
Sparks will receive $1,900 annually, Garvick said, with assistant emergency management coordinator Vanessa Yanavitch — who was also approved at the meeting Tuesday — to receive $600 per year.
Yanavitch is a Penn Township resident who works in the township as an EMT, Garvick said.
“Both individuals will be of great assistance to us since there has been no one specifically in charge of emergency preparedness since the passing of our former EMC,” Garvick said.
Sparks said the most important part of the coordinator’s job is preparation. In recent years the state has seen blizzards, tornadoes and hurricanes, he said, and once something of that magnitude happens it’s too late to plan.
“We’ve had every kind of weather in recent years, and you have to be ready for that and more,” he said. “But working together, and working with surrounding area, we’ll be ready.”
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