Danny Manley assumes the helm of a Mississippi emergency agency, while Carroll Hemphill retires after 30 years in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Hilton Head Island, S.C. emergency management director is resigning after less than two months on the job.

According to the Hilton Head Island Packet, Richard Gaston, the former emergency management coordinator of Sugarland, Texas, was hired in December 2007 to lead Hilton Head Island's emergency preparedness efforts and recovery planning. Gaston was one of 92 applicants looking to replace Jay Harter, who retired in May 2006. But Gaston decided to return to Texas after having difficulty finding affordable housing and other family issues, Chief Lavarn Lucas of the Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue Division, told the paper.

"He had done a good job in the short period of time he'd been here," Lucas told the paper. "He was still getting mostly acclimated, but we had already started seeing some positive results. So it's very disappointing that he had to move on."

The Picayune Item reports that Danny Manley is moving from Picayune, Miss., where he was on the fire department and served as fire marshal, to become the director of the Pearl River County (Miss.) Emergency Management Agency.

According to the paper, Manley has served as a contact for the South Mississippi Regional Response Team, worked with the Mississippi Department of Homeland Security, served as training coordinator for the Chemical, Radiological, Biological, Nuclear and Explosives Strike Team, and served as the National Incident Management Systems Coordinator for the southern six counties.

“In the time since Hurricane Katrina, at least three of the volunteer fire departments have had some difficulties communicating with dispatch, and communications were spotty, at best. We are already working to solve the problem, and should have it resolved by the middle of next week,” Manley told the paper.

The McDowell News reports that Carroll Hemphill closes the book in his 30-year career, by retiring as emergency services director for McDowell County (N.C.). Terry Young has taken the emergency management position and William Kehler is the new EMS director.

According to the paper, in 1978 Hemphill became the emergency manager. In the early 1990s, then-EMS Director James Wyatt died and Hemphill took over EMS and 911 as well. He also was a charter member of the Glenwood (N.C.) Fire Department and served several times as its chief.

"When I came in, equipment was a big problem," Hemphill told the paper. "I presented the county commissioners with a plan. With that, they could look ahead for up to five years and see what needed to be replaced when. That plan is still in effect today."