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Hazmat, FDFD team up on office manager

The regional Hazmat group serving the Fort Dodge region will have a new part-time office manager, spending part of her time with the Fort Dodge Fire Department, after the full-time manager retires, Webster County Supervisor Merrill Leffler said Tuesday.

Headquartered at the Fort Dodge Fire Department, the Region V Hazmat team responds to nine counties from Pocahontas to Greene, and Sac to Hamilton. It receives funding of $1 per capita from all the counties.

“We’ve always had our own full-time office manager, Peg Stickrod,” Leffler said. “She’s retiring. The city approached us, and we thought about it. We are going to try a half and half-time person. The person will be half-time secretary/assistant to the fire department, and half-time Hazmat office manager.”

Since the Hazmat team consists of the Fort Dodge Fire Department, this makes sense from a communications standpoint, Leffler said.

It’s also a chance to bring the Hazmat manager in to work at the fire department. Before, the manager worked at Iowa Central Community College because of how Homeland Security was once managed.

“We just took the opportunity to explore what might be best for both operations, and we think the communications between the fire department and Hazmat will be better this way,” Leffler said.

The office manager handles billing, scheduling classes and training for fire departments throughout the region, and writing federal grants among other responsibilities.

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