By Andrew Martins
Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN – Mayor Gregory Westfall has appointed Cheryl Johnston-Willois to a three-year term as Allentown’s emergency management coordinator.
The mayoral appointment came several weeks after municipal officials established an Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in Allentown.
The Borough Council gave its stamp of approval to the mayoral appointment on April 12.
Westfall said Johnston-Willois “has been involved in emergency management for about 25 years in various locations. She comes with very high qualifications.”
According to her resume, Johnston-Willois handled various roles in the West Windsor Department of Public Safety since April 1991. She served under numerous disciplines of emergency response, managed personnel and trained staff in various programs.
Johnston-Willois was a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) instructor at St. Francis Medical Center, Trenton, from March 1992 to July 2006. She has been a CPR instructor at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, since May 2011.
As Allentown’s emergency management coordinator, Johnston-Willois will supervise disaster control operations in the borough by planning for certain contingencies. She will supervise tests and exercises, coordinate services between local and county resources, and seek out federal and state grants for the operation of the OEM, according to municipal officials.
Johnston-Willois will manage the Emergency Management Advisory Council, which will consist of the emergency management coordinator, the deputy emergency management coordinator, a representative of the Allentown Police Department, the Upper Freehold Township Fire Department or the Hope Fire Company, the Allentown Borough Council and the Allentown First Aid Squad, plus the supervisor of the Department of Public Works, the borough engineer, the local water utility operator and the local sewer utility operator.
Johnston-Willois will appoint a deputy emergency management coordinator, with final approval from the mayor. Only a salaried officer or employee of the borough can be named deputy emergency management coordinator.
According to Allentown’s salary ordinance, the emergency management coordinator will receive a salary between $1,500 and $2,000 a year.
Johnston-Willois will be required to complete a home study course and an emergency management workshop by April 12, 2017.
According to state regulations, the emergency management coordinator will need to be able to “issue and enforce such orders as may be necessary to implement and carry out defense or disaster control operations and to protect the health, safety and resources” of the borough and its residents.
“We are very pleased to have this appointment done,” Westfall said.