By HEATHER NELLIS

For the C-S-E

FONDA — The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed Adam Schwabrow as the director of Emergency Management, a resolution approved with full-board support.

Schwabrow, a 31-year-old Johnstown police officer and town of Mohawk volunteer fireman, will start the part-time position Nov. 1. His appointment will fulfill the vacancy created by last month’s resignation of former department Director Dwight Schwabrow, Adam Schwabrow’s father.

“I’m obviously excited for the opportunity the Board of Supervisors has given me. I look forward to a long and productive tenure while I’m in the position.”

And with a reference to the flooding events of summer 2011, Adam Schwabrow joked, “If it’s less active than my father’s term, it would be welcome. Hopefully the weather system forming in the south goes out to sea, so I don’t start off where Dwight left off.”

Schwabrow was already a deputy emergency management coordinator for the department, appointed in 2006 by former Director Gary Nestle.

Emergency Management Deputy Director Rick Sager said Adam Schwabrow worked diligently during the 2011 floods, and thinks he was a good choice for the position.

“He’s already a member of the department, so he’s familiar with policies and procedures,” said Sager, who has worked for the department since 1988. “I’ll make sure I’m here if he needs me to make sure the transition is seamless. I worked with his dad to do the same.”

Schwabrow has been a volunteer firefighter most of his life. He served as a junior firefighter for Mohawk between the ages of 14 and 18, and has been a volunteer firefighter ever since, having at one point served as chief.

He’s been a police officer for the city of Johnstown since 2004, having previously worked full-time as a dispatcher at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, and as a part-time dispatcher for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

“My whole career and life has been about giving back to the community, so this is just a part of that,” he said. “It’s the next step.”

Schwabrow said he doesn’t foresee his full-time job as a police officer conflicting with his duties as emergency management director.

“The majority of the work as emergency management director is preplanning and mitigation,” he said. “A small part of it is responding to emergencies, and the volunteer deputy coordinators will be around. If an emergency happens when I’m at work, I know others will help to take care of it. I also work 12-hour shifts, so I have days off, and other officers can swap shifts with me, so I don’t see it being an issue.”