Despite the recent abrupt resignation of Brad Taylor as director of Sequoyah County Emergency Management, county commissioners aren’t panicking.

After all, Cherokee County has apparently taken the “Friends” approach, assuring its neighbor to the south that “I’ll be there for you.”

So when the county commissioners met last Monday for their weekly meeting, they approved an emergency management services agreement with Cherokee County to provide guidance and services as needed.

“Our emergency management manager resigned last week, so to protect the county, we’re going to do an interim with Cherokee County,” said District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts, who chairs the three-member board. “The [Cherokee County] commissioners have agreed to let us borrow him if we need him, and OEM is aware of it.”

Cherokee County has a three-person emergency management staff: Daniel Westbrook is the director, Rebecah Logan is deputy director and Courtney Bourgouin is emergency management specialist.

In addition, Sheriff Larry Lane said Cherokee Nation Emergency Management offered its services should the county need them.

Watts said Steve Palladino, senior advisor for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, is available 24/7.

“If something happens, all we’ve got to do is make a phone call,” Watts said. “It’s not really going to hinder anything.”

Heath Orabanec, former fire chief for Sequoyah County Rural Fire Protection District 1, concurred.

“As far as emergency services go, I think the county’s in pretty good shape as far as all the departments, sheriff’s department. We’ll be able to handle anything that happens here, we just won’t have that guy who is kind of the key to the toolbox until we can get Cherokee County down here, the kind of guys who can get us what we need when we request it,” Orabanec said.

Watts reiterated that Palladino is available should he be needed.

“Luckily, Steve Palladino, who is up there in OEM, I talked to him last week and told him what our plans were, and he thought that was a good idea,” Watts told his colleagues. “He said, ‘You’ve still got my number, too. In the middle of the night, something happens …” “And he’s a Sequoyah County guy,” Orabanec noted.

In addition, Taylor’s departure also impacts the county’s hazard mitigation plan, which was supposed to be finalized in September. But Watts said the plan is progressing.

“We’ve got to get that done. We’re bound to have it, and all the schools and towns piggyback off of it. Like if they’re wanting to get a storm cellar grant — Muldrow was trying to get some of those. But until our hazard mitigation plan’s done, there’s nothing to piggyback off of.

“We hired a private contractor to write it, that’s what’s taking so long. It’s just so much,” Watts said.

Orabanec was particularly aware of the need to complete the hazard mitigation plan “because there’s money out there with the Community Wildfire Prevention Program for some folks who are looking to do some cleanup work, and that specifically has to be written in that hazard mitigation plan in order for us to be eligible for those Oklahoma grants.”

“We hired a private contractor to write it, that’s what’s taking so long,” Watts explained. “It’s just so much.”

Taylor, 34, was appointed on June 10, 2024, replacing Jonathan Teague, who left May 31, 2024.

Teague had been with the county since January 2023, and was named director in October 2023 after having served as deputy director for nine months.

His appointment was due to the resignation of then-director Garrett Fargo, who was hired to replace Steve Rutherford, who retired in November 2022 after 10 years as SCEM director.

So in the past three years, the county has had four different directors — Rutherford, Fargo, Teague and Taylor.