Tag Archive for: #brianshort

H-V Emergency Operations

TownTalk: Short To Retire As Director Of Emergency Operations

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Brian Short, director of Vance County emergency operations, is retiring at the end of May. But you won’t find him on the golf course or puttering around in the yard for very long – he’ll begin a new state job just four days after he turns over his local duties to Vivian Lassiter, who will serve as interim director.

Short and Lassiter were guests on Thursday’s TownTalk segment to talk about the state of emergency operations in the county and what may lie ahead.

“With the exception of being a husband and a father,” Short said, “this is the most important thing I’ll do in my life.” He started out in 1991 as a part-time 911 dispatcher and rose through the ranks to become its director in 1998.

“I’ve got a lot of faith and a lot of pride in this agency,” Short said. Lassiter said she’s been preparing for this new role as interim director and said she feels confident because of the way Short has prepared her.

“Brian’s worked with me one on one…I feel as ready as anyone else. I believe I’ll do fine (but) I’ve got big shoes to fill.”

Short said he always tried to make sure the emergency operations staff was ready to work outside their comfort zones “so they’d be ready to grow and progress when the opportunity presented itself.”

Having the safety and welfare of close to 50,000 people is a heavy burden, he acknowledged, but he has great confidence in the people who run the 911 call centers and everyone else who responds to emergency situations.

“They’re the ones in there on the front lines, making split-second decisions, making the right calls,” he said.

Today’s local 911 dispatchers have the best equipment and technology available, Short said. You may find bigger operations functioning in larger cities, “but you won’t see one with any more or better technology than what we have,” he added. “We try to always be on the cutting edge.”

Lassiter knows all about that technology – she’s currently the acting operations manager for the 911 center and occasionally fills in as a 911 operator when needed.

“I just enjoy saving lives,” she said. And that desire was only heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wanted to do more,” she said.

She plans to keep the agency running just like it’s running now. “I think the way that we do things and involving the community is the right thing to do,” she said.

CLICK PLAY for TownTalk broadcast with Brian Short and Vivian Lassiter!

 

Granville Vance Public Health Logo

Town Talk 06/08/20: Harrison & Short Discuss Increased COVID-19 Testing, Need for Continued Precautions

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THIS STORY IS PRESENTED IN PART BY DRAKE DENTISTRY

Lisa Harrison, director of Granville-Vance Public Health (GVPH), and Brian Short, director of Henderson-Vance Emergency Operations, appeared on WIZS Town Talk Monday at 11 a.m.

With 449 known Granville County COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths, and 355 known Vance County cases and 27 deaths reported as of Friday afternoon, Harrison and Short said precautions still need to be taken to stop the spread of the virus.

According to GVPH’s website, there are currently four outbreaks at congregate living facilities in the district, including the Federal Correctional Complex and the Murdoch Development Center in Butner and Pelican Health and Kerr Lake Nursing Home in Henderson.

Of the Granville County community-based cases, 97 have been released from isolation and five are hospitalized. Of the 263 community-based cases in Vance County, 127 have been released from isolation and nine are hospitalized.

Harrison reported that 696 NC residents are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. “The reason we keep promoting wearing face coverings, washing hands and practicing social distancing – and the point of flattening the curve – is so that we don’t overwhelm our health care system,” said Harrison. “We’ve seen in other countries how horrible it is when there aren’t enough ventilators for people. More than half-a-million tests have now been given in NC; we’re going to see the number of positives increase, and we are going to, unfortunately, see a number of those people need the hospital.”

According to Harrison, the report of increased cases is due, in part, to more testing and quicker turnaround times. “At the beginning of the pandemic response, getting access to test kits, swabs and the medium to be able to send off to a lab was really difficult to do,” stated Harrison. “We are seeing the number of available tests increase across NC because of private labs and our State lab. Mako, in our own backyard here in Vance County, is leading the charge in developing, as quickly as they can, more test kits.”

Explaining the two primary test types, Harrison said testing is currently done in the form of a nasal swab or a blood test with either a 24-48 wait for lab results or a rapid response with an answer in minutes.

An issue with the rapid result method and with the blood test is that results are not yet 100-percent accurate, which can result in false positives, according to Harrison.

For those that suspect they may be suffering from COVID-19, Harrison said the best thing to do is to contact a doctor’s office to discuss symptoms and testing. “COVID-19 is still a diagnostic test that requires a doctor’s order, that’s why we suggest contacting your primary care doctor first,” said Harrison. “We have not been able to do the sort of mass testing that people see on tv in big cities here locally yet. We will get there; I’m certain.”

In fact, Harrison said the health district’s first attempt at mass testing will be held in the parking lot of Shiloh Baptist Church in Henderson on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. Details are still being discussed and will be announced at a later date.

Short, who has worked closely with GVPH, Harrison and Granville County Emergency Services Director Jason Reavis through the pandemic, praised the business community for their response to COVID-19 restrictions.

“This is just my observation, but the overwhelming majority of people inside businesses seem to be wearing masks or face coverings,” Short said. “However, I’m not seeing a lot of social distancing, and that is disappointing. I think businesses have gone to great lengths to mark places for people to stand, place signs in the aisles and place revised occupancy notices on doors, but it’s so hard for them to enforce that inside the business. You almost need as many employees working as you have customers to really enforce them properly. I think the businesses are doing the best they can to try to protect the employees and the public, but it’s an almost insurmountable task.”

GVPH updates its website daily with Vance and Granville COVID-19 statistics. Please visit www.gvph.org/COVID-19/ for the latest information.

To hear the interview with Harrison and Short in its entirety, go to WIZS.com and click on Town Talk.

H-V Emergency Operations

Vance Co. Reports 23 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, One Virus-Related Death

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100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

-Information courtesy Brian K. Short, Director of Henderson-Vance County Emergency Operations

As of now, the total number of confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Vance County has increased to 23. Presently, all are self-isolating with no one currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.

There has been one death reported in Vance County as a result of complications associated with coronavirus infection.

It is still very likely that given the progression of this virus elsewhere in the world and in our own country, our cases will continue to increase over the days and weeks ahead. At this time, the Henderson-Vance Emergency Operations coordinated response posture remains the same, and we are not altering our recommendations to the general public.

We strongly encourage our citizens to continue to observe the social distancing parameters and closing orders issued by the governor and suggested by our local and state public health agencies.

Vance County and the City of Henderson continue to operate under a local state of emergency. Being under a local state of emergency allows the implementation of certain emergency protective measures if, or when, they should become necessary.

Brian Short Named NCAPCO Director of the Year

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100.1 FM / 1450 AM WIZS; Local News broadcasts M-F 8am, 12pm, 5pm

Brian Short, the Henderson-Vance Emergency Management Director, has been named Director of the Year for the North Carolina Chapter of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.

At a Monday evening meeting of the Vance County Firemen’s Association, Short smiled and said, “They caught me by surprise on that one.”

The Firemen’s Association met and Short was there in his capacity as E-911 and Emergency Operations Director. As he recently explained on WIZS TownTalk, mapping of the County and City remains essential so firemen and other emergency personnel can quickly arrive at precise locations.

With the ongoing possibility of fire redistricting in Vance County, new mapping will possibly be required to help lower ISO ratings as the County is looking at switching to 5-road miles districts, as in the distance from the fire station, from the existing 6-road miles districts.
As to the redistricting, WIZS News learned at the Association Meeting that the plan is to tackle this question in more detail after the early October ISO testing is completed. The plan in mid-to-late October is to involve the Volunteer Fire Department Chiefs and start looking at Vance County in four sections, addressing each quadrant until new plans can be proposed.

(Click the image, as it’s embedded courtesy of the NCAPCO on Facebook.)

Vance County Logo

New Dispatch System, Mobile CAD to Better Connect 911 & First Responders

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Brian Short, director of Vance County Emergency Operations, was on WIZS’ Town Talk program Tuesday to provide updates on the 911 call center’s new computer-aided dispatch system.

Short, who has been the director of emergency operations since 1997, said his entire staff has been working diligently on replacing the old computer system over the past two months. “We replaced our entire system at significant cost, but it was a cost that was covered by the 911 surcharge fees that everyone pays on their cell phone and landline phone bills.”

As with any new system, Short said staff members and telecommunicators are still learning the ropes. “We are still recovering from the update and learning the new system. People are becoming more proficient every day.”

“We had 19 years to get used to the old system,” said Short. “The new system does so much more and improves our ability to get help to people quicker.”

The second phase of the new system includes a Mobile CAD component that will essentially place the new computer-aided dispatch system used in the call center into the vehicles of first responders.

“Our goal is to have every responder online with the system by this Christmas, including police cars, sheriff cars, fire trucks, ambulances and animal control officers,” Short said.

Mobile CAD will allow the call center to view every responders’ location on a map at all times, thus allowing telecommunicators to assign the available officer that can respond the quickest to an emergency situation.

The mobile system will also provide responders with more detailed information about a location including codes for gated communities, after-hours contact information for businesses and a call-history of a particular address.

According to Short, he and Assistant Director Jason Reavis, along with several police officers, are currently beta testing the mobile system and “getting the bugs out” before going live.

“It [mobile system] enables us to respond much quicker and allows for real-time sharing of data between the call center and the field units,” said Short.