Jones County’s Emergency Management Director and Fire Chief opted to forgo the usual farewell receptions and recognitions due to his aversion to saying goodbye to people he cares about.
Don Graham announced his retirement from Jones County at the first of this year, and his official retirement date was July 1. His last day in his office was June 14.
The chief did allow Jones County Commissioners to present him with a plaque and have a short recognition before their June 18 meeting, but he was out of the door immediately after.
Graham talked about his career and retirement plans during a May 28 interview. He is proud of the progress of the fire department over the past 15 years, and he said the round-the-clock fire coverage for Jones County that began May 1 helps him rest easier at night.
Graham said it was rough going for a time after the commissioners appointed him EMA Director in 2009. He was not the anticipated choice for the job of a majority of the volunteer firefighters, but he was able to work through that and has earned the respect over the years of even hardened past opponents. Some of those volunteers have talked about the job Graham has done for Jones County in recent board meetings.
Regardless, the chief said he feels like it is time for him to leave.
“You know when it’s time,” he said.
Graham began moving out of his office the first of June and sold his house in Gray. His next home is located in Palm Beach, Florida, with wife Sherri.
“The plan is to become beach bums,” he said, although he admitted to already securing a parttime job at the trauma center there.
Graham recently renewed his paramedic certificate through 2028. He said it is hard to give up something he has done for 46 years.
The chief said he feels good with the county’s current situation.
“Class 5 is great for a volunteer fire department with water issues,” he said.
Graham said with the county getting more water to areas and round-theclock firefighters, the rating should keep getting better.
He said he has listened to every fire/rescue call for the past 15 years. The first step to full-time firefighters in Jones County was one paid person in 2010, which grew to three.
Graham said May 1, the day the three fulltime firefighters started, response time to calls was reduced by almost half.
“It’s only going to get better with more manpower on the trucks and new apparatus,” he said.
Graham said one the accomplishments he is most proud is the county’s hiring of a safety coordinator, Charles Cook, in 2011. He said work-related accidents immediately went down. During Cook’s first safety inspection, he found 214 hazards. The chief said the safety practices implemented since the safety coordinator has been on board are now the norm. The savings to the county in workers compensation cost alone has been thousands of dollars, not to mention the savings in lost work hours.
Before becoming Jones County’s EMA director, Graham was a paramedic manager, overseeing more than 100 employees at the Medical Center of Central Georgia, where he was employed for 22 years. He took a significant pay cut to work for Jones County but did not hesitate to serve the county he called home.
The chief said his first focus when he took over in 2009 was lowering the ISO rating for the county. In many portions of the county, that was a Class 10, which is the same as no fire protection.
The ratings are set by the Insurance Services Office and are used by insurances companies when setting insurance rates for homeowners. The reduction of the rates countywide to Class 5 happened in 2012, the same year all Jones County fire stations were state certified.
Those two events were responsible for a significant reduction in the cost of insurance for Jones County residents.
Graham became a certified arson investigator that year and persuaded the Board of Commissioners to implement the emergency weather warning system Code Red for the county.
Code Red is provided free of charge to all Jones County residents.
Under his leadership, two new fire stations were constructed in Jones County on Highway 49 and Highway 57.
Jones County’s training academy located behind Fire Station 8 was funded by a grant applied for a former EMA director Allan Green. Graham said he was proud to be able to finish that project by getting the building set up on a concrete slab, fenced and ready to use.
He applied for and received many grants for the county, including funds for additional warning sirens and equipment for river rescues.
Graham was named EMA Director of the year for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency in 2013 and received the Emergency Management of Georgia President’s Award in 2014 and 2015.
He also served as president of the association for a two-year term from 2017-18.
Jones County had its first paid firefighters in 2014 as a result of Graham’s efforts. They were stationed in the county’s busiest fire stations during the day and were instrumental in reducing response time during those hours.
Another big step came when commissioners approved $600,000 to hire nine full-time firefighters in 2022. That action was postponed due to the possibility of a SAFER Grant from FEMA that could have saved the county $1.3 million.
It was found out in February that the grant was not approved.
The director said applications for the fulltime firefighters were posted, and in eight weeks time, only one application was received.
He said he knew it was time for him to retire, and the volunteers came to the commissioners with a plan to use part-time firefighters to provide round the clock fire protection for the county.
Graham said the plan was approved, and 27 part-time firefighters were hired to provide the county with 24/7 coverage. He said the plan was put in place May 1.
The chief said Fire Stations 1, 2, 5 and 6 are housing the firefighters and are equipped with showers and sleeping quarters.
“So far, it’s working well,” he said. “I’m a big believer if a person calls for help, we needed to be rolling.”
Graham said the first fire call had four units rolling with a response time of six minutes. The previous average response time had been 13 minutes.
