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Elton Lewis was sworn-in by Virgin Islands Superior Court judge Julio Brady as the new director of the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency, during a recent ceremony held at Government House on St. Croix.
On May 3, Lewis swore to uphold the duties and responsibilities of his office, before Governor John P. de Jongh Jr., Lt. Gov. Gregory R. Francis, Sen. Ronald Russell, president of the 29th Legislature, colleagues, staff, friends and family.
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| Governor
John P. de Jongh, Jr. witnesses Superior Court
Judge Julio A. Brady administers the oath of
office to VITEMA Director Elton Lewis during
ceremonies at Government House, St. Croix, May
3, 2011. |
Lewis is the second director to take the helm the new VITEMA, which was recently elevated to an independent, Cabinet-level agency with jurisdiction of the 911 emergency communications system, the public assistance unit and the VI Office of Homeland Security. He replaces Mark Walters, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manager who was on loan to the VI government to lead the overhaul and reorganization of the Territory’s emergency management system.
In his remarks, Lewis reaffirmed his commitment to driving VITEMA to new levels of achievement and pledged to continue to work in the best interest of the people of the Virgin Islands.
“For me this means, engaging and planning strategically through our public and private sector partnerships to ensure that we can efficiently and effectively respond when disaster strikes, that we can sustain ourselves for a period of time, and that we can quickly return to some semblance of normalcy after an event,” Lewis said.
Lewis underscored his key short and long term goals and objectives, some of which include ensuring VITEMA’s employees and volunteers are adequately trained and creating redundancies in Territory’s alert and notification system with the installation of a tsunami warning siren system and the re-implementation of the Emergency Alert System
(EAS).
Additionally, Lewis said he would seek to “educate the public about VITEMA’s role in management of emergencies, to raise awareness about the importance of preparedness, and to ensure that our community outreach includes our special needs population.”
Over the long term, Lewis’ uppermost and over-arching priority for the agency is to improve the delivery of services in times of emergency and to ensure that the Territory is prepared and can be self-sufficient, he said.
“This is important because geographically we are so far removed from the United States,” Lewis said.
In closing his remarks, Lewis said his ultimate goal is to develop a better facility on St. Croix once the Territory recovers from its current economic crisis. He asked for the community’s support as VITEMA continue to strive towards meeting these objectives.
Alicia Barnes was also sworn-in as Commissioner of Department of Planning and Natural Resources during the ceremony at Government House.
Congratulatory remarks were offered by Gov.
de Jongh, Lt. Gov. Francis and Senate President Russell.
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