O'Heir reflects back on time as Vermillion County EMA Director

It was a good run. 

That is how Mark O'Heir sums up his 16 year run as Emergency Management Director for Vermillion County. 

"I retired from the Coast Guard in December of 2008. At that time, the former director was involved in a court trial over misappropriated FEMA funds, and the Commissioners were looking to hire a replacement for him. I applied and was offered the position," O'Heir told The Parke County Post. 

And, as they say, the rest is history. 

"When I was first employed by the county, the State had a very strong task force system in each district. This offered some excellent training and job shadowing positions on FEMA Type 1 Task Forces around the country. This on the job training and the classroom courses were excellent in preparing me to handle in county disasters," O'Heir noted. 

However, O'Heir had another "county disaster" to navigate as the former EMA Director was found guilty of misappropriating FEMA funds and sent to prison. As a result, Vermillion County's EMA program was suspect in everything it did with the state, O'Heir admitted. 

"Top that off, our response plans were all written to respond to a VX Nerve agent spill. There were no plans for weather related incidents and natural disasters. These all had to be written," he said. 

O'Heir said there was close to six months where nobody was in the office, but the bills kept coming in. 

"My first task was to get a handle on the bills and request funding from FEMA to pay them. Unfortunately, FEMA had already paid the county for about two thirds of the outstanding bills and the county did not apply the funding to get the bills, so we had to find out where it went and get them paid," he recalled.

Despite the hiccups, O'Heir was able to turn the office around, and recently received the Indiana Homeland Medal of Merit for his efforts, which included building the office into a highly effective program, as well as bolstering partnerships around District 7 and the Hoosier State. 

In addition, he was presented a plaque from the Vermillion County Commissioners recently during a surprise retirement party.

As for what is next, O'Heir already has plans. 

"My wife and I are planning to travel and spend time with our grandchildren," O'Heir said.