VAN BUREN -- Crawford County's new emergency management director has expressed interest in providing new resources to the residents in her jurisdiction.
County Judge Dennis Gilstrap said he hired Veronica Robins for the position last month. She started May 23, having served in the seat on an interim basis since May 2 following the resignation of Brad Thomas, according to the county. Robins used to be project coordinator for the Crawford County's Road Department.
Robins, 53, said she would like to open a dialogue with whoever's elected county judge and sheriff this year, as well as others, about redeveloping a search and rescue team comprised of volunteers and professionals. She noted the county had a volunteer search and rescue team before, but it was disbanded years ago.
"My feeling is we need those volunteers," Robins said. "I know they can't be there every time the bell rings, but if you have a group of people dedicated to training, if half of them show up, it's more than what they had when they started. So I feel like that is an area that we need to research."
Robins said she would also like to reach out to all the communities in the county, including the cities and rural fire departments, and find out what resources they need that the county and its Department of Emergency Management could help provide.
Gilstrap said the main role of emergency management is to prepare the community to plan for, respond to, operate during and recover from disasters, be they natural or man-made.
"Basically, emergency management is a resource," Gilstrap said. "They don't go in and run the operation. They go in and support law enforcement, fire, EMS , search and rescue. They go in and they support them with resources."
Robins will build her own volunteer staff as the only paid person in Emergency Management, according to Gilstrap.
Robins said she worked in the county's Road Department for 15 months before being hired to her current position. This included eight months as an administrative assistant before she assumed the role of project coordinator, something that involved working with Chris Keith, the county's road superintendent, to prepare the timelines for projects to keep them on track. Robins also helped when needed regarding floodplain management in the county.
Robins said she worked as an administrative assistant for Dyer for 16 years prior to this. She carried multiple licenses during this time, including that of a certified floodplain manager, which she holds today. She has also served as Dyer's National Incident Management System coordinator.
Robins said she enjoys the kind of work coming with being involved in something pertaining to emergency management at either the city level or county level. This includes recovery of funds and planning for events that could happen, although she noted things happen in the field that negatively affect the community, such as the Arkansas River flood of 2019.
"When I was at the city of Dyer, we had six families that lost their homes down there that, between me and Brad, we worked hand-in-hand together to recover funds for these people as individuals because they were displaced, to get funding to help them," Robins said. "So when you do stuff like that and you do have a positive outcome, it makes this job even better."
Keith said Robins did a "wonderful job" during her time in the county Road Department. This included everyday responsibilities such as putting in data and paying bills to other things such as writing grants for the department and dealing with paperwork from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Gilstrap said two other people applied for the emergency management director position, although one later pulled his application. Among the factors he said made Robins stand out as a candidate were her work ethic, which he described as "unbelievable," knowledge of how government works and ability to pursue grants.
However, Robins' credentials were her main outstanding quality, with her having all the required emergency management certificates.
"She had worked with Mr. Thomas helping out in the office with grants and with different things within the emergency management as she worked at the Road Department because they kind of work side-by-side when you have these disasters and you're working where you have washouts in the roads and all that," Gilstrap said.
Gilstrap also pointed to Robins' status as a certified floodplain manager, noting one of the emergency management director's responsibilities is to manage the floodplain of the unincorporated areas of the county.
Veronica Robins, the new emergency management director for Crawford County, listens on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at a meeting with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission regarding the Frog Bayou Watershed at the Crawford County Emergency Operations Center in Van Buren. Robins served in the position on an interim basis before officially being hired by Crawford County Judge Dennis Gilstrap on May 23. Visit nwaonline.com/220610Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)