Emergency Management

Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating and planning responses to all Town emergencies. The Emergency Management Office is also charged with managing the Manchester Emergency Operations Center (MEOC).

The Town Manager serves as the Town’s Emergency Management Director (EMD), a position established under State law (20 V.S.A. §6). In Manchester the Town Manager appoints a part-time Emergency Management Coordinator to assist in planning and managing emergencies, and other part-time and volunteer officers such as the public information officer. The Emergency Management Coordinator is available by appointment.

The Town of Manchester adheres to the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Town employees and officials have received basic, advanced and specialized training under NIMS. Most emergencies are coordinated from the Manchester Emergency Operations Center (MEOC), located inside the Town’s Public Safety Facility. The MEOC is a state-of-the-art nine hundred square foot facility, complete with communications equipment. When the MEOC is not being used to manage emergencies the facility is using for conferences, meetings and training for public safety personnel.

The Town Manager authorizes the opening of the MEOC during an emergency and appoints an Incident Commander (IC), who oversees the operations of a particular emergency. The Town of Manchester has mutual aid agreements with neighboring towns as well as the Village of Manchester.