The Allen County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) was established in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code (ORC 5502) in 1988 to serve as the countywide agency for the purpose of overseeing the planning, response, recovery and mitigation of any and all major disasters/emergencies that occur within the county. The Allen County EMA serves all political subdivisions within the county including all townships, villages and municipalities.
In Allen County, the EMA also serves as the emergency coordination and public information arm of the Allen County Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning Committee and as a result has authority under ORC 3750 which are the state laws dealing with the storage, manufacture and transportation of hazardous materials.
The EMA has the responsibility for maintaining the county’s Emergency Operation Center (EOC) located at 2000 North West Street in Lima and for establishing secondary EOCs as needed. The agency is also charged with the establishment and updating of the county’s Emergency Operations Plan. This plan is the county’s formal outline of emergency response to all types of disasters/emergencies likely to occur here including flood, tornado, winter storms, drought, earthquake, hazardous materials releases, transportation crashes, civil disorder, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and radiological emergencies.
The agency is staffed by a fulltime director and two deputy directors.
EMA Staff:
- Tom Berger, Director
- Jared Gesler, Deputy Director/911 Coordinator
- Drew Munshower, Deputy Director
- Roy Brock Bomb Squad Commander
EMA Volunteers:
Deputy Directors
- Dave Parker
- Craig Hohenbrink
- Steve Harvey
- John Walters
- Todd Gardner
- Scott Fessler
Public Information Officers
- Victoria Gonzalez
