According to Lawrence County Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Boster, 2002 was a successful year in terms of Lawrence County's handling of emergency crises.

Boster recently issued a report on EMA activity during 2002, calling it a successful year. He added the county agency is even getting statewide attention because of this success.

Boster said the agency had a positive response to OSCAR -- the Ohio State Capability Assessment for Readiness, a two-day event in October that brought together a number of local businesses, government and emergency service officials to study the area's ability to handle a large-scale disaster.

The Western West Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross sent a letter congratulating local officials on the success of the OSCAR event, and on recent successes in general.

"This was the most extensive review of emergency management capabilities and resources I have ever been a part of," Red Cross Emergency Services Director Seth Staker wrote in the letter. "Secondly, let me say that in my 10 years of emergency management experience, I have rarely seen the commitment and leadership I have witnessed within your department over the last year or so. The cooperation and hard work your office has exhibited has made a big difference to the people you serve and the agencies with which you cooperate. In fact, the spring floods saw a quicker, more effective response than I have witnessed since I've been at the chapter."

Boster said, as a result, he has gotten requests for help from local agencies, asking for help in developing emergency preparedness plans.

"The Chesapeake School District has requested help with an all-hazards plan," Boster said. " I hope to use theirs as a model for other school districts in the county."

Boster said

several businesses, emergency services and educational leaders have expressed interest in developing a county training committee to assure proper training for responders and officials, while others have expressed interest in developing a county public information officer system for education and response.

Boster also pointed to a successful bioterrorism exercise with the county health department and a successful HazMat exercise with Sunoco Chemical as two of several activities that have boosted emergency readiness and local enthusiasm within the last year.

Boster said the activity on the local front is getting the attention of state EMA officials in Columbus, and from his counterparts throughout the state. He said the county commission should accept part of the kudos for having been so supportive of emergency management.

"The state is recognizing the board as proactive on emergency management," Boster said. "We've been asked a couple of times to present (programs) at statewide meetings. The drought response of 1999, and the commission's response to the West Nile Virus (summer 2002) were presented at the statewide meeting of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

We were unique in that, as far as I know, we were the only county in the state that had a county-level response to help township trustees and municipalities take care of the West Nile problem."

Last year the county offered to reimburse any township or municipality, up to $1,000 for spraying efforts to kill mosquitoes, carriers of the virus.

Boster said in the coming year, several training programs are scheduled to help with on-going emergency preparedness training efforts, including an incident command system training class for responders, health officials and government officials Feb. 13-14, a kids safety scenes program at Collins Career Center May 13-14, and a HazMat exercise at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds May 17.