Hunterdon’s newest public safety director outlines goals for helping the community NJ.COM

For as long as he can remember, Brayden Fahey has wanted to be the first line of defense for those made defenseless by a medical crisis, natural disaster or other dire situation. “I’ve always had an interest ever since I was a child in emergency services, specifically EMS (Emergency Management Services),” Fahey said. “There’s something that pulled me into wanting to serve on an ambulance and serve the community and our fellow citizens.” While no longer a member of local EMS squads, Fahey has recently been promoted to a role that will allow him to serve his community in greater ways than ever before. In December 2020, Fahey was appointed to the role of acting public safety director for Hunterdon County following the retirement of George Wagner after a 40-year career with the county. The promotion, which has awarded Fahey with a $99,000 annual base salary, represents what he describes as a “natural progression” in his career. Fahey joined the Flemington-Raritan First Aid & Rescue Squad at age 16 and dedicated his time to other various county EMS agencies throughout his early 20s until 2011, when he earned a full-time position with Hunterdon County as its emergency management coordinator. In his new title, Fahey retains oversight over the county’s Department of Public Safety, inheriting responsibility for the County Communications (911) Division as well as the Emergency Management Division, the Office of the County Fire Marshal, the Emergency Services Training Center, and Homeland Security. Fahey is balancing the responsibilities of the Office of Emergency Management coordinator with his new role as the county’s public safety director — and intends to do so indefinitely, he said. “I think the work that I’ve done and the relationships that I’ve built as the emergency management coordinator lend well to serving in this role as the department director as well,” Fahey said. “It also needs to be said that we have a really good team within our department ... (which) also allows for me to function in both capacities.” As the county’s emergency management coordinator for the past 10 years, Fahey has influenced a number of projects designed to improve the quality of life for Hunterdon residents. His office recently concluded a flood buyout program operated in collaboration with Warren County, for which the counties used a $7 million grant to purchase properties prone to flooding to both help “folks that are truly burdened by flood insurance” and diminish the number of flood-related 911 calls. He also helped to implement a new staff ambulance response policy in the county that expedited the response time to 911 calls, and recently pushed forward the construction of a burn training facility, the first phase of the evolution of the county’s Emergency Services Training Center. Moreover, Fahey has collaborated heavily with the county’s Department of Health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “(We have) developed 911-taking guidance for our dispatchers, guidance to our first responders on PPE and such,” Fahey said. “And we’ve had a tremendous PPE program in which we were able to provide items to them and also healthcare institutions and long-term care facilities when they weren’t able to get it from anywhere else.” Fahey largely credits his success in emergency services to the relationships he’s built throughout his many years servicing the county — which has only better prepared him to serve in his new role. “If you collaborate and work together, I’m of the opinion you’re going to find success no matter what the industry is,” Fahey said. “And that’s what we’ve tried to work on over the last ten years; forming relationships and bonds and sustaining them and putting them in a position to flourish.” Looking forward, Fahey identified his top priority to be ensuring the department’s systems and programs “operate at the highest possible level,” at all levels, including dispatchers, the emergency services training center, entry-level firefighters and EMS personnel. “The mission of our department, whether it’s emergency management or the 911 communications center, is to service that first line of defense when someone is having the worst moment in their life,” Fahey said. “So my number one goal is to ensure that we have a well-functioning program that can meet that expectation the public has for us, and that’s in the way our dispatchers train and perform, in the way our emergency services center falls under the county’s Office of Emergency Management.” In establishing this goal, Fahey emphasized that he will prioritize the improvement of the department’s systems and technology wherever necessary so that its programs can “integrate seamlessly together.” He also said he hoped to grow the number of professional development and training opportunities available in his department, as well as expand its community outreach by strengthening the department’s relationship with other organizations and with the public in general. “I think there’s a really good opportunity to interact with the public a lot more than we do now. And I think we do a nice job of that, in trying to ensure the public has the information that we need on various things that affect them,” Fahey said. “We’ll go out and speak to anyone that asks us to, quite honestly — we’ve also done a lot on the emergency management side to get groups to the table that we may not at one point considered ... the United Way of Hunterdon County, Hunterdon Helpline, and several other organizations to form a Community Organizations Active in Disaster program.” On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fahey said he has begun working with the Department of Human Services and other groups to provide food insecurity relief throughout the county, which he hopes to further escalate. “Everything we’re learning from that would lend to other types of emergencies and disasters. People being displaced from their homes, we would need a solid, feeding plan for them,” Fahey explained. “So there’s been opportunities to look at this in an all-hazards approach ... and begin to make some enhancements and improvements to our plan as we carry through beyond just COVID.” Fahey said he will also seek to continue aiding local EMS departments, many of which are struggling with increasing their volunteer numbers. “Our first responder and emergency service organizations were reliant for so many years on volunteerism, and the volunteer base just isn’t there anymore,” Fahey said. “And we’re trying to find creative solutions and ways to combat that.” In recognizing that responding to emergencies has only grown more complex as technology evolves and more services become available, Fahey nonetheless expressed his determination to continue helping others — which he believes he can do more effectively than ever before from his “10,000-foot view” above the county’s emergency services. “If we look at that emergency occurring, it’s from the time the 911 call was placed, to the time the person has a medical issue, to the time they’re brought to definitive care,” Fahey said. “And we’re trying to bring all the different groups together and different representatives together to ensure we’re doing it in the best manner possible ... delivering the highest level of service to our residents and visitors that we can.”