Grand Traverse County emergency coordinator to step down after 13 years

Grand Traverse County’s emergency management office at 2600 LaFranier Road, Suite A, will lose Gregg Bird on July 12, one day after the 100th National Cherry Festival ends. His departure comes as the county heads into the busiest stretch of summer, with large crowds in Traverse City.

Brandon Perry is the assistant emergency management coordinator. Bird steps away after 13 years in the job. Bird has been part of public safety since 1990, with more than 30 years in the fire service and more than 25 years in 9-1-1 and organizational management.

Bird’s emergency management career began officially in 2005, when he was deployed to the Mississippi State Emergency Operations Center during Hurricane Katrina. Bird is past president of the Michigan Emergency Management Association. Over that span, he guided Grand Traverse County through historic flooding and severe winter storms.

On April 14, county officials declared a local state of emergency because of ongoing and anticipated flooding impacts, and the county activated its Emergency Operations Center. Public safety agencies evacuated residents when necessary and warned people to stay out of flood-hit areas as damage climbed. By late May, the county’s preliminary flood damage estimate had reached $21.2 million.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expanded Michigan’s state of emergency on April 15 to include Grand Traverse County and 32 other counties after severe weather that brought snowmelt, record rain, flooding, straight-line winds and tornadoes. The county’s Equalization and GIS logistic team assesses flooding impacts to private and public properties across the county.

Bird’s last festival in the role will be the centennial National Cherry Festival, set for July 4-11. The festival began in 1925 as the Blessing of the Blossoms and now draws more than 500,000 people each year.