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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 6:58 PM Tuesday, July 14, 2009

HAMILTON — Jeff Galloway’s new job will be managing emergency response in Butler County. But first, he has some political damage control to attend to.

The Butler County Emergency Management Agency governing board has hired Galloway as its new director. He will start the job Aug. 3.

Galloway currently is emergency management director in Fentress County, Tennessee. Before that, his resume says he was a lieutenant in the Palm Beach County fire department in Florida, where he worked since 1978.

Galloway has visited Butler County and started meeting with local officials. He said Butler County is like a combination of the growth and density of Palm Beach and the rural character of Fentress County.

“I sincerely look forward to living and working in Butler County,” he said. “My goal is to bring the emergency management agency up to the next level and progress from there.”

Galloway’s 31 years of experience in fire service and emergency management impressed the EMA governing board, according to Mark Sutton, board president and Fairfield Twp. trustee.

But his diplomatic skills were just as important in getting him the job, Sutton said.

“I think his experience at different levels of supervision ... plus dealing on the political end of it, I think he’ll be a good fit to draw everybody together,” Sutton said.

Galloway replaces William Turner, who resigned in February after harsh criticism of his performance by two county commissioners and local police chiefs. Some say this illustrated a strained relationship between law enforcement and the EMA that the agency has since worked to address.

Sutton said he is hopeful Galloway can recoup some of the grant money Butler County lost this year, partly because the agency had no director.

Galloway said one of his first priorities will be pushing for a new emergency operations center.

The current center on the sixth floor of the Government Services Center in Hamilton doesn’t function when the power is out and gets poor cell phone coverage. Grants are lined up for a new one, but it still needs more than $1 million in local money that Butler County doesn’t have.

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