When a call comes into the Hot Spring County Department of Emergency Management, Terry Eubanks, director, said he finds it hard not to be one of the first responders.
Eubanks, 49, spent 27 years as a first-responder, either as a paramedic, a firefighter or a law enforcement officer, but his new role with the department requires him to coordinate the response rather than be active in it.
“My job is to stay back from the situation and get the resources to take care of the problem. That’s a hard adjustment for me,” he said.
“This is still a learning experience,” said Eubanks, who began his new job in July. “It’s going to be for a while, just like law enforcement was.”
Eubanks said he has to complete 13 certifications within the first year of his employment as director of the department.
“I’ve finished 11 on my own,” he said. “The others, I will have to schedule when I can.”
According to the department’s website, hotspringdem.org, the stated purpose of the department is “to serve as the countywide agency for the purpose of overseeing the planning, response, recovery and mitigation of disasters or emergencies that may occur within the county.”
Eubanks said that means the department responds to a variety of problems, including “anytime anyone is displaced from their home, anytime there is an accident with chemical spills, anytime there are floods or natural or man-made disasters.
“We also provide training assistance to public-safety agencies and responders, and all requests from local responders for
resources from the state come through this office,” he said.
Eubanks said the first call he took as the new director involved an accident on
Interstate 30.
“It involved an 18-wheeler that was on fire on I-30,” he said.
“We were very fortunate that the driver, No. 1, got out safely, and No. 2, the item the truck was carrying was an empty container,” he said. “I-30 has so many carriers going up and down it daily. Many — more than most people know — carry hazardous materials.”
Eubanks said the department hosts training sessions for local agencies, such as fire, law enforcement and other first responders. He said his office also issues equipment, including boats and radios, to other agencies such as fire departments.
Eubanks said his new job is part time.
“It’s always been a part-time position,” he said, noting that he works 25 hours a week. “Funding is a major issue. I hope someday it will become a full-time position.”
Eubanks was born in Galesburg, Illinois, “but we left there when I was about 1 1/2 and went south,” he said. He is the son of Ron and Jeannie Eubanks, who now live in Bismarck. Terry Eubanks’ oldest brother, Tony, lives in Florida; Terry’s other brother, Carl, and sister, Cheryl, live in east Tennessee.
“I graduated in 1986 from Sandrock High School in Sandrock, Alabama, which is near Fort Payne, where the country music group Alabama got its start,” Eubanks said.
“I started college, but I haven’t finished yet,” he said, laughing. “I started out studying organizational applied psychology. Most of my hours are from Christian Brothers University in
Memphis.”
He spent time as a disc jockey for a local radio station in Alabama, then went on the road singing and playing in Southern gospel bands.
He sings bass and plays a variety of instruments. He has performed with, or provided sound for, several groups over the years, including The Blackwood Brothers.
Eubanks became a certified emergency medical technician in 1986 and moved to Marked Tree in northeast Arkansas.
“My career in law enforcement began in 1987 as a dispatcher/jailer,” he said. “I later worked as a patrolman, canine handler and narcotics investigator and detective.”
Eubanks spent several years in the Memphis area working for the Somerville (Tennessee) Police Department. While in the area, he opened a recording studio in 1995 in Memphis, which he still owns.
He moved to Hot Spring County in 2003 and worked as an investigator in the Hot Spring County Sheriff’s Office. He left the area in 2006 to work for the medical examiner’s office in Claremore, Oklahoma, but returned in 2008 and began a job with a private security company, where he worked for another 2 1/2 years.
“I went to work for another private security company that provided service to Ouachita Baptist University, where I served as head of campus safety for two years,” Eubanks said. “Then I went back on the road singing bass full time with a Texas group, The Pacesetters Quartet, out of the Dallas area,” he said.
“I ran an unsuccessful race for the office of Hot Spring County sheriff in the 2016 primary,” he said. “I decided I am not a politician.”
He is a photographer, however, noting that he became interested in photography, especially macrophotography, when he was a crime-scene investigator.
Eubanks is married to Jennifer Eubanks, who is the administrative assistant at the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce. The couple live in Bismarck with their 8-year-old daughter, Emma, who attends Bismarck Elementary School.
Terry Eubanks has an older daughter, Brittany Rosenberg, 26, who lives in Trumann with her husband, David; together they have five children.
Eubanks continues to make music, performing with Jennifer and Emma as the Eubanks Family Ministries.
The group has a new CD, The Acoustic Set. They perform locally, including at First Assembly of God in Malvern, where they attend church. They post information on their Facebook page, where Emma can be heard singing the single, “He’s Still Working on Me.”
Eubanks said his wife, Jennifer, “is an incredible singer,” adding that she is a daughter of the late Donny Catron of Mountain Home, who performed for years with The Tennessee Gentlemen.
“We met at a bluegrass concert where both her dad and I were playing,” Eubanks said, smiling. “We are heavily involved with music now.”
Asked if he had any hobbies, Eubanks laughed and said, “I rest in my spare time.”