Starke County EMA Director Lewis Matzat asked the Starke County Commissioners to consider moving the EMA position from part-time to full-time in order to get everything up to speed in that department.
Matzat, who has been an active firefighter in the county for several years and in the part-time EMA position for the past seven weeks, said there is a more work to be done.
“It’s just a large work load for one person and we’re missing out on a lot of key components of like the EMA’s actual job,” stated Matzat. “We need to move forward in making the position full-time. I spoke with the auditor [Rachel Oesterreich] and Councilman [Dave] Pearman at the last meeting I had with them a few weeks ago discussing making it full-time. I put in my verbal resignation stating I would gladly stay if we could move forward with making it full-time.”
The EMA salary is around $36,000 or $37,000 and Matzat said the salary needs to be increased. He stated that salary is not quite suitable for a director’s position and it is hard to find a qualified candidate at that salary. He suggested increasing the salary. Other area EMA directors have a higher salary than what Starke County offers and they are full-time.
Half of the salary is reimbursed by the state, if there are certain achievements met.
Starke County Council President Dave Pearman commented that the work is not there for a full-time position and the council only budgeted for a part-time position this year. Pearman argued that there are a lot of different positions in the county that are underpaid, not just the EMA director, but the council works with the money available in the budget.
Matzat said he has been working on inventory and a full-time person could attend state grant meetings and keep up with communications with all of the county’s emergency services and the schools to ensure procedures are in place.
After a lengthy discussion, the Starke County Commissioners eventually tabled a decision on moving the EMA director’s position back to a full-time status. As for an increase in salary, that would need to be discussed by the Starke County Council.
