New manager opens door

Times Contributor      

 

Judy Unsworth is placing high heels next to gumboots as she steps into the role of Fire and Emergency Management Coordinator for Wheatland County, replacing Gerald Skibinsky. 

“I am very excited about having the opportunity to work here. I am looking forward to working with each municipality, the fire associations and all the volunteers in the county. I think we are on the verge of some positive growth and a fantastic future,” said Unsworth. 

She has had 17 years fire experience, working her way up the ladder as a firefighter in the County of RockyView. She spent seven years as a volunteer firefighter, three as a lieutenant, five as fire chief, two years as captain and two as district chief. 

“I really, really liked it. I loved being on the fire truck, doing fire calls. I loved training and the crews were amazing,” said Unsworth. “It gave me a really good grassroots understanding of the fire service.”

She has worked with full time firefighters as well as volunteer firefighters.

“In my experience the full time are all extremely professional, but the really passionate firefighters are the volunteers because they really love it. I think there is a ton of opportunity here,” said Unsworth. “I am hoping the existing volunteer chiefs will be helpful. Each seems to have unique strengths that complement each other. I think if we work together…if we all have a buy in and share collectively it will be a good thing.”

When asked if being a woman held any unique challenges in past or present roles, she replied that whether a man or woman is asked to fill a role, it comes down to whether they have the physical and mental capacity to fill the requirements of the role. 

“As a firefighter, I was really fortunate because in Irricana there were a lot of women. Certainly there are some prejudices, but I refuse to play that game. We are all here to the job and I like to think that I am trained and educated to do it. I really believe in working together as a unit. It is our nature to want to help each other and want to do well and help our communities,” said Unsworth. 

Part of the hiring process had Unsworth comment on the upcoming fire review implementation. When asked about those challenges, she said helping people overcome the fear of the unknown will be crucial.

“I think all these men and women have been passionate enough to stay with this fire service through its changes and if this is channeled in the right direction, great things will happen,” said Unsworth. “ It actually gives me great hope that Wheatland County, council and their CAO and management were willing to look at the Pandora’s box in the fire service; so much so that they hired someone to come and take a look at it and perform a review, which takes a lot of bravery in my opinion. Their willingness to move forward with it speaks greatly to their commitment.”

Her past experience as an elected official gives her a perspective of how council might approach issues.

“We definitely have a responsibility to our firefighters. Not only do they leave their families in the middle of the night to put their lives at risk, now they carry the liability for that. The liability is humungous if we don’t all pitch in and sing one song,” said Unsworth.

Unsworth has lived in Southern Alberta for 20 years and her father was an RCMP, which makes her aware of challenges facing other emergency services, as well. Completion of levels one to four in Disaster Service operations and participation in incident command and emergency response situations will most certainly come in handy, as the county develops its emergency response callout plans and sets up the new EOC area of the administration building renovation.

She said her communication style is open and transparent and she favours honest and direct responses. Her past work for an international publisher, the Chestermere Anchor and the RockyView Weekly led to good inside knowledge of communication processes and audiences that she might encounter in her new role. She has already had several fire chiefs drop in for a quick chat.

“Everyone has been very supportive. The fact that people are calling and coming by to say hi, makes me feel very honoured,” said Unsworth.