Northville Township directors attend preparedness classes
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| Todd Mutchler |
All nine township department heads, from Finance to Public Services, successfully completed the Fundamentals of Emergency Management course through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to better prepare for major emergencies and disasters of all types. Township Manager and Public Safety Director Todd Mutchler.
That puts Northville Township in rare company, according to Township Manager and Public Safety Director Todd Mutchler.
“We have informally researched this and we have not heard of any other community that has had all of their directors take this FEMA course to help prepare for an emergency,” he said.
The goal of the course is to prepare department heads for incident management and support activities for any natural, technical or human-related hazard or emergency.
Each township director is now capable of planning, managing and coordinating resources for an efficient, effective response,” Mutchler explained. They also understand how FEMA operates and how it fits in with assisting Northville Township residents, he added.According to weather statistics, since 1997, there have been six presidential declarations of a major disaster in Wayne County and there have been seven such declarations by governors during that period. The state has experienced 857 tornadoes since 1950, including 27 in Wayne County. After the multiple summer storms that left many with damaged homes, downed trees and no power, natural disaster aid was top of mind for everyone, Mutchler said.
“We want to be prepared because it's our mission to deliver excellent public service and Northville Township has some areas of risk, including the railroad tracks that go through our community,” he said.
Mutchler said he is also working with Wayne County Homeland Security and Emergency Management to establish some additional “tabletop” training exercises for Northville Township to further bolster emergency management knowledge.
