By DORIS COOK - Staff Writer
JEFFERSON —Taking over as the county’s director of the Emergency Management Agency is Conneaut native, George Sabo. After working out of the area for a number of years in emergency response training management jobs, Sabo, 44, is glad to be back home.
He is a 1983 graduate of Conneaut High School and still has a lot of family living in Ashtabula County. Sabo and his wife, Linda of 19 years, moved back to make their home in Saybrook Township. She works for FirstEnergy in its Information Technology Division.
Sabo’s professional experience included stints in public safety, EMA, Homeland Security operations and structure in private industry. From 1997 to 2004 he was facilitator with Arvest Corp. in Perry then worked a year at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant as a radiation technician.
Sabo said the seven years with Arvesta Corp. found him doing a lot of troubleshooting on an emergency response team. “At ERT Inc. in Chagrin Falls we worked on nationwide emergency response incidents of hazardous waste materials cleanup,” he said. “I did a lot of traveling with the job. In the last three years we managed cleanup of 400 spills. I learned on the job in this field.”
Sabo had previously applied for the county EMA position several years ago when former director Lou Sosler was selected. “I’ve worked with Ed Somppi, who was the former director here as well. I’m trying to get around to meet people in the county I’ll be working with,” he said.
Sabo said his department team of deputy director Tim Howson and office manager Debbie Riley have been a big help in settling into his job. “They did a great job handling things during our recent storms. They’ve been helping me catch up,” Sabo said.
