County Says Farewell to Butch Baker

 He's a career military man with a soft-spoken charm the county has grown to love over the last decade, who keeps a cool head during those times when it is most in demand.

Last week, the county said farewell to Butch Baker, director of emergency management, who retired, for the second time in his life.

The first time, it was in June 1990, at age 47, after 28 years in the Air Force mainly handling avionics and electronics.

"I thought ‘What do civilians do?'" recalled Baker. "I was like a kid in a candy shop."

Baker tried a lot of things, selling life insurance and real estate, running a convenient store, counseling female juvenile felons in an Inner Harbor transitional living setting, in their last bid to make it in the world.

He even worked as a deejay and general manager at Oyster Radio, where he holds the honor of having hired veteran radio newsman Michael Allen.

In Sept. 1997 he began a two-year stint in charge of the county's emergency management effort, succeeding John Sack. It was then Baker began the process of building an operational emergency operations center.

In Sept. 1999, he would move to east central Florida to be an area coordinator of emergency services for eight counties, but in Jan. 2005 to Franklin County, and back to his old job.

Baker remembers his first order of business, containing the damage from two sunken vessels at Apalachicola's city dock.

And he can tick off all the emergency events he and his staff has contended with in the county, from the El Nino floods and the wildfires of 1998, and that year's two hurricanes, Earl and Georges, to Hurricane Dennis in 2005, Alberto in 2006 and this year's storm surge damage from Ike, Fay and Gustav.

Baker is proud of the visit paid to the county this past year by the Hurricane Hunter aircraft, one of only five cities it visited this year. "Some of the places they go to have more people tour the airplane than live in this county," he said.

But Baker's greatest satisfaction comes when he tours the emergency operations center, with its sophisticated storm monitoring and satellite equipment, its reliable generator and its fully outfitted sleeping rooms. "We can feed ‘em, sleep ‘em, train ‘em and work ‘em, all in one place," he said.

As grateful as he is for the county's support, Baker alluded to their working relationship when the commissioners presented him a plaque at a Sept. 19 appreciation luncheon.

"I've enjoyed working with the board of county commissioners and with hurricanes. The big difference is hurricanes are predictable," he joked.

Baker said he is confident that both Pam Register, newly named to succeed him as emergency management director, and Mike Rundel, who will continue as second in command as coordinator, will both perform admirably and cordially as true professionals.

He did note, however, that the county commission must make sure to cultivate the abilities of county workers by avoiding micromanaging their responsibilities.

"Allow department area directors to do their jobs without interference," he said. "You have someone to do a particular job, let them do their job. Give them authority to make decisions in their jobs. That's the only way you're going to develop a really competent person.

"They more or less left me alone and I thank them for that," Baker said.

The outgoing emergency management director also recommended that the county focus on knitting together the various communication systems so that there are no gaps in coverage. "We have five different radio systems in this emergency operations center, and that's not counting ham radio," Baker said. "We need a common frequency, a common radio, that all responders could work with."

Baker, 65, said he decided to retire ahead of schedule so he could spend time in north Georgia with his ailing mother, and avoid being absent during her twilight years. "I'm not going to make that mistake again," he said. "I figured I got 35 more years left."

He plans to leave following the Florida Seafood Festival, where he serves on the board of directors.

Married 42 years to wife Sally, the couple has two daughters and a son, and is looking forward to grandchildren. "I am the grandparent of three granddogs, though," he said.