Beaufort County is creating a new Emergency Services Department that will be overseen by new Emergency Services Director Carnie Hedgepeth.

Hedgepeth has most recently served as director of fire and emergency services training at Pitt Community College, in addition to previous roles as a fire-and-rescue training specialist for the North Carolina Office of the State Fire Marshal, fire/EMS chief for the Town of Winterville, deputy fire/EMS chief for Morehead City and as an EMS specialist for the City of Greenville Fire/Rescue Department.

“He’s got a very broad background in emergency services and worked on both sides of it, volunteer and paid,” said county Manager Brian Alligood.

Alligood said the reorganization is an effort to be more efficient in EMS, animal control, emergency management and fire marshal operations, all of which will become departments beneath the umbrella of the Emergency Services Department.

“Those four (division heads) will report to the emergency services director, who will oversee the entire department,” Alligood said, adding that the change will allow division heads to focus on operations, rather than budgeting and administrative work required for separate departments.

According to Hedgepeth, combining the four departments that already regularly work together is a practical move.

“In all of our emergency services, they’re all built on service to our community and each one, especially looking at the fire and EMS standpoint on the routine basis … all have that kind of brotherhood and sisterhood with each other,” Hedgepeth said. “There’s a constant relying on each other with what they do.”

Hedgepeth, who is also an ordained minister, said each of his past positions at the state and local level, in small and large departments, and with volunteer and paid staff has allowed him the experience needed for the new job.

“I think every experience we’ve ever had in life helps us prepare for the next,” he said.

Hedgepeth was one of 26 applicants for the Emergency Services Director position, nine of whom were interviewed, Alligood said.

Hedgepeth will begin his new duties on April 3. According to Alligood, one of his first tasks will be to analyze whether Beaufort County Emergency Management has the capacity to operate with existing talent once longtime Director John Pack retires at the end of April.