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BELLEFONTE -- There's going to be a change at the top of Emergency Communications in Centre County.
At Tuesday's Centre County Salary Board meeting, it was announced that longtime director Dale Neff is retiring at the end of the calendar year. Following a search, it was determined that assistant director Norm Spackman would take over for Neff, beginning in 2021.
County administrator Margaret Gray said that the county conducted a comprehensive search for Neff's replacement.
"We searched for this position by externally posting and recruiting candidates. We've gone through that process and the result of the process is the appointment today of Norm Spackman as the director of our emergency communications office."
According to Gray, there were "several candidates" for the position.
"Norm clearly was the most qualified. He's been with our 9-1-1 office since 2001, so he's been here for 19 years. He's worked very closely with Dale Neff. He understands the operations of Centre County's 9-1-1 Center and the importance of the service that we provide to our community," Gray said.
Spackman was unanimously approved at a salary of $70,920 annually. His appointment begins on Jan. 1, 2021.
The Centre County Commissioners thanked Neff for his service to the county.
"We've worked with Dale for a number of years now and he's been just a tremendous asset to emergency communications," said commissioner Michael Pipe. "He built on the success of prior directors and he will be sorely missed. We do know that Norm will be an able, capable and terrific director. We want to thank him for putting his name in the hat. We're really excited about what he's going to do with the agency moving forward."
Fellow commissioners Mark Higgins and Steve Dershem echoed Pipe's sentiments.
"Thanks to Dale for the wonderful job that he and his team have done. Norm has been a key part of that team and I've been working very closely with the two of them -- much more closely than usual -- since my appointment to the state 9-1-1 advisory board. They're both great people. Sorry to see that Dale is leaving, but happy to see that we have a very capable replacement already in the wings and ready to hit the ground running on Jan. 1," Higgins said.
"I think we've been very blessed with having great leadership in the 9-1-1 office for a very long time. I think Norm's appointment will add to that legacy and his experience will be well-suited to leadership into the future," Dershem said.
The Centre County salary board is comprised of the three commissioners and controller Jason Moser.