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Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Calhoun County series.

Durk Dunham says when he was younger he couldnt wrap his head around the idea of retirement. He also never thought hed live to be 50. But he did live and he has retired -- almost.

Dunham retired Dec. 16 as director of Calhoun Countys Emergency Management Department after 14 years with the county.

He originally began working with the Countys Emergency Management department as a volunteer and since he is not quite ready to completely step away from the workaday world, he has agreed to once again serve in a volunteer capacity as one of three of the countys Deputy Emergency Management Directors. He also will work part-time with a major local company in their security area.He first volunteered while holding down his day job at Olivet College as Director of Admissions and Financial Aid and later as interim Vice President in the 1990s and serving as a firefighter with the city of Marshall.

The college was going through some major transitions at the time he was interim Vice President of Enrollment Management. He agreed to take the position with the understanding that once things had stabilized, he would go back to being Director of Admissions because he loved that job and the students he got to work with.Director of Calhoun Countys Emergency Management Department Durk Dunham retied in December.My intention was to go back to being director of admissions, Dunham says. During the course of replacing three vice presidents and a president in a three-year span I decided to leave. Lets just say I was opposed to what the new president stood for and who he was as a human being. I could either stay there and suck it up or leave with my morals and integrity intact and thats what I did with the severance package I took in 1993.His departure marked the end of a long history with Olivet College that began while he was a student there. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and would go on to work at a psychiatric hospital in Lansing, the former General Motors plant in Kalamazoo, at radio stations in Battle Creek, and the college.Throughout these job changes, the one constant was his volunteer service with the County. That did not go unnoticed by former Calhoun County Sheriff Al Bynum. The two were friends as well as work colleagues. He asked Dunham to become the Director of Emergency Management. In making the job offer, Dunham says Bynum told him, Weve got some issues here and I want you to take care of them.It was a time when cell phones had not yet solidified their place as a necessity in peoples everyday lives and Dunham relied on police and fire radio and pagers to stay on top of potential emergency situations that would require emergency preparedness planning.He was the only paid member of the Emergency Management Department and was supported by three volunteers who are sworn Sheriffs deputies. Dunham says these volunteers play an absolutely crucial role alongside him. He says he would have liked to have had a part-time administrative assistant, but there was no funding for such a position.This is a tough job and there is a mountain of paperwork and federal, state, and local laws and regulations that go a mile deep, Dunham says. The requirements of this position are really formidable.Prior to 9-11, weather-related events were recognized by the Emergency Management department as among the highest risks in the County because they impacted every resident.Before 9-11, we chased weather. There were required components to this position, and things we had to do, but it wasnt anything that was taxing. After 9-11 hit everything changed, Dunham says. If I had to put it on a sliding scale and start with 9-11, thats when phone calls to our department gradually started to increase every year going forward. Because of more stipulations and regulations that have followed since 9-11, our workload has risen steadily. Its a completely different operation now. Its much, much more complex because society has become more complicated and more difficult.Director of Calhoun Countys Emergency Management Department Durk Dunham and the volunteers in his department have dealt with everything from bad weatther to the Enbridge oil spill to COVID-19.The complexities and complications became even more challenging with the arrival of COVID-19 and the ensuing shutdowns throughout the County in March, 2020. Dunham was among city and county leadership who are part of the Joint Information Center that was formed in response to the pandemic. The JIC began hosting weekly virtual meetings to disseminate information about the virus and its ensuing variants, the number of COVID-related infections and deaths, and how key stakeholders were supporting efforts to manage the pandemic and take care of the needs of all residents. Dunham put his radio voice to use as the host for some of the more recent Joint Information Center meetings.

Prior to COVID, Dunham says the top major emergencies for the county were the Enbridge oil spill in July 2010 and a severe storm over the 2011 Memorial Day weekend.The Enbridge oil spill was the largest inland oil spill in the history of the United States, Dunham says. Ninety percent of Emergency Managers across the nation would never go through a crisis of that magnitude.Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Enbridge, and the Michigan State Police, worked alongside Dunham and other local leaders to manage the spill and the cleanup.There were textbooks and training materials written from the data gathered from that oil spill. People documented it very, very carefully, Dunham says. We had some of the worlds smartest scientists visiting this county after the oil spill happened and they used what they learned here to create a plan for the mitigation of future oil spills. We knew there was going to be an ending, and that it wouldnt go on forever, and that we were going to clean the river up.Fortuitously, Dunham says an emergency incident like the oil spill was included in the countys Hazard Mitigation Plan, which defines the 10 most likely risk-oriented disasters in Calhoun County.Though the oil spill and the destructive 2011 Memorial Weekend storm taxed the Emergency Management departments resources, Dunham says the pandemic has been the greatest challenge for him and his volunteer staff to manage.On of the more challenging events of Durk Dunham's career as director of Calhoun Countys Emergency Management Department was dealing the Enbridge oil spill of 2011.With the pandemic, we dont have an end in sight, he says. When the Delta variant emerged that was an eye-opener for anyone not involved in emergency management. Part of our challenge is to try to keep people in a positive frame of mind while trying to stay ahead of the virus and its variants. The pandemic has been a heavy lift.In addition to providing people with the most accurate and up-to-date information about COVID and its variants and addressing other emergencies impacting the county and its residents, Dunham has some standard messaging that he has consistently been sharing. He says a very huge part of his job is to communicate countywide about family emergency and disaster preparedness.A big part of my job responsibility is about keeping our residents, their kids, and their friends as safe as possible, he says. I ask questions like, Do you have a flashlight and a case of water in the basement? What I am putting out there has never been more important at this time in the history of our country. People need to prepare for natural disasters and any situation that would affect their safety or the safety of family and friends. Because of our internet, there are resources like FEMA.gov that are fingertips away to tell you how to prepare.He says his message to residents is, Each individual in this county has to take on the personal responsibility to mitigate risk for themselves, friends, loved ones, and pets. Its a responsibility I would love people to take on thats as important as brushing their teeth.He will continue to highlight the importance of having a plan in place for emergencies as he slides into the next phase of his life.That he will miss the people he works with on a daily basis, is a given. He calls them special human beings.But he knew it was time to step down when a sense of calm set in after he had made his decision.I remember through the years as an upper-level manager that I would start to see people retire and one of the things they used to say to me with this big, calm look on their faces was that You will know when its time and you will feel it inside. It was a very calming feeling that said to me its time. Im relaxed and ready and super-excited about what comes next.

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Emergency Management Director has seen Calhoun County through oil spill, bad weather, and COVID-19 - Concentrate

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Its a dang good thing were winning the cricket because the government has collapsed. Scott Morrisons Team Australia has left the health system to fail; the virus is out of control, tracking and testing has crashed, and Liberal Party corporate mates Harvey Norman and Chemist Warehouse are profiteering. Michael West looks at the price of Scomos personal responsibility.

They let it rip. And it ripped. Three Covid infections in Bali yesterday, 35,000 in NSW. Nursing homes are locking down so Australias elderly can once again die in peace, untroubled by the distraction of having their loved ones around them. Restaurants, a slew of businesses going belly up. Hospitals in such crisis that Covid-positive nurses are being called back to work.

Its ripped alright. Australia. Government, broken. Its a good thing there are things the government doesnt control because they are going well. The Ashes, the share market, iron ore prices. The stuff they do control however, but for which they are apparently not responsible, things like the health system, defence spending, nursing homes, quarantine; falling apart.

The single most important duty of government is to keep the people safe. Theyve failed.

They do control the media though, or most of it at least, and thats still going well for them. Somebody from the ABC was complaining that Scott Morrison, Greg Hunt, Dom Perrottet and a few of the personal responsibility crew knocked back an offer from 7.30 Report to go on tele to explain themselves. Naturally they refused.

Why would Scomo front Laura Tingle anyway when he can hop on the JobKeeper subsidised Seven Sunrise at do some public relations and marketing?

Day-in-day-out, he can rely on the corporate media at the government subsidised News Corporation, Sky News, Seven and Nine Entertainment to create the illusion everything is somebody elses fault.

It was only yesterday that Rupert Murdochs courtiers at The Australian were claiming free Covid tests are wrong. Nine media timidly accepted too that its big advertiser Harvey Norman, yet to pay back its JobKeeper despite record profits, was entitled to make a profit from selling Covid tests.

Then Morrisons black arts department in PMO chucked a 180 and suddenly it was PM to the rescue a bold red non-exclusive Exclusive about our ScoMo, genuflecting about the white knight riding to the rescue.

Chronic rapid test shortage to continue for days as PM offers states more free kits, splashed The Age and SMH about the PMs new plan.

Good thing they did not elect to do journalism and tell the truth; that the government is out of its depth, sinking the tumultuous seas of its own incompetence and crony capitalism, and the real plan is just to do a Donald Trump and keep the PR coming via its subsidised and compromised corporate media outlets.

Checking in on what our white knights up to, we strayed unwittingly this morning onto the website of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC).

The National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) website and social media channels are now live, it declared. Alas, no they werent. Page not Found, was the search result. Quite symbolic really because what we are dealing with here is Government not Found.

Like most Coalition plans, the NCCC was secretive and didnt work out. Despite the grand ambitions and the curtseying media which accompanied its inception, the commission was quietly disbanded a few months later and after some lavish fees for the assorted fossil fuel directors and Liberal Party acolytes.

Thank heavens for independent media and independent politicians. This from Crikey: Last July the commission was granted a new mandate that allowed much of its work to be deemed cabinet in confidence meaning it could operate largely behind closed doors. This was challenged by independent Senator Rex Patrick.

The commission spent more than $1 million on market research, none of which has been released publicly. About $541,000 of that went to former Liberal Party pollster Jim Reed another $500,000 went to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for management advisory services. BCG was also hired by the government to advise it on gas modelling. PricewaterhouseCoopers was also given $79,200 for management advisory services.

Plus cest la mme chose, as they say in France, where incidentally a new mutant strain of the virus has just bobbed up, reportedly originating in Cameroon. We dont know what this Ihu variant will bring but its a fair bet the government here will ignore the scientific and medical advice and the empirical evidence of how best to handle it.

It is also a fair bet that the looming election campaign will be more ludicrous than any before. There are countless examples but this weeks Murdoch oped claiming rapid test *should* be free, then the exclusive the very next day saying how great it was that the PM was providing free kits is a classic of the captured media genre.

This is not journalism, it is not media in any traditional sense, it is a foreign media company given to warmongering and running daily propaganda for the Coalition.

What the Coalition really needs is a good enemy. It is shaping as a Covid election otherwise, and even with the support of its media allies and a $16bn war-chest of publicly funded bribes to fork out to marginal seats, this will be a challenge because everybody now has a personal Covid experience and only the most strident of Tories will contend with any conviction that the government is competent.

It is fair to say that governing in this pandemic is no cakewalk. Mistakes will inevitably be made, and both public health and economic measures change according to changing circumstances. The problem for Australia is more systemic. This is a government which ignores sound, scientific advice on everything from climate and energy to health.

It is a government of business lobby marionettes, a government which listens to those who give the Coalition money. How else could it ignore medical advice on the Pandemic, or allow 50 new fossil fuel projects to be on the boil? How else could it blow up $40bn in JobKeeper hand-outs to Italian fashion houses and other foreign multinationals as well as large local corporations and other entities with record incomes.

So to the inevitable distractions. The China rhetoric will intensify. Comically, The Australian ran this during the week: Nuclear submarine pact has Beijing rattled. The governments outhouse PR operatives in the Murdoch media love a war and the China-threat stories are daily fodder. So much so that surveys find millions of Australians actually fear a Chinese invasion.

To address the actual facts though, there is no submarines deal. There is some sort of secret agreement with the US and Britain to buy submarine technology under the AUKUS treaty.

The claim that China is shaking in its boots thanks to Australias deal to get some subs sometime in the next 20 years will be a bit late for the Election in May but that wont stop the propagandists concocting an immediate threat and decisive action by the Morrison government.

If there was a deal we would probably know what sort of subs there were by now, US or UK technology, old or new. There would be a cost, which at this point is only an estimate of $90bn.

For its part, China has 60 or 70 submarines itself. It exports the things to at least four other nations. The very notion that Australia ought to go to war with China over Taiwan, or for that matter any other reason than an invasion of Australia which is a bizarre notion in itself is simply ridiculous. We would be shellacked in quick order, despatched like the English batting line-up, even with our entire GDP spent on weaponry.

If it were not so tragic it would be funny. Here is a media machine, arrant apologists for Donald Trump, which brought us the Wuhan lab theory, a Chinese conspiracy to spread the pandemic, then the Chinese military threat daily.

It can only be a matter of time before they join the dots between the shortage of RAT tests and Chinese profiteering. Meanwhile, there would be no profiteering if there was a competent government which reacted to independent, rational advice rather than whispers from the business lobby.

There is no public appetite for more lockdowns and the latest variant of the virus is less dangerous. Yet people will die as a result of the collapse of government and the failure of our elected leaders to take proper advice. Its not hard, just a matter of listening to people who know what they are talking about, seeing how other countries are managing public health, acting decisively and ignoring the siren calls of business lobbyists.

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They 'let her rip', and she ripped; government collapses in Australia - Michael West News

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield denounced the Chicago Teachers Union's decision to return to virtual learning, arguing that the "safest place" for children right now is in the classroom.

The Chicago Teachers Union voted late Tuesday to return to full-time remote learning amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. Redfield told "America Reports" Wednesday that the decision has no scientific basis and only risks causing further harm to children grappling with the mental health impacts of the pandemic.

WHITE HOUSE REITERATES SUPPORT FOR OPEN SCHOOLS AFTER CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION VOTE

"Its so important to keepour schools open to face-to-facelearning. We can do it in a safe andresponsible way," Redfield emphasized. "The reality is the school isprobably the safest place forthese students to be, so I dontthink the decision really isgrounded in science. I dontthink its grounded in ourknowledge of what the situationis."

The Chicago Teachers Union's vote forced classes as early as Wednesday to be canceled. The vote was approved by 73% of the union's members, who voted for no in-class learning until cases of COVID-19 "substantially subside" or until union leaders approve an agreement for safety protocols with the district.

Redfield said the move will only exacerbate the negative effects children are experiencing, telling Fox News that there's "no question that the public healthinterest of K-12 students is notserved by remote learning."

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifies at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services. Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker/New York Times, Pool via AP)

"Whether its nutritional supportthat millions of children get orthe mental health servicesupport that over 7 million kidsget, whether its the ability todetect child abuse, the mentalhealth, depression, loneliness,suicide, drug abuse," he continued. "Not tomention ... some of these kids fall off thelearning curve, and some of them are never going to get backon the learning curve."

"This is really not in theinterest of children," Redfield reiterated. "Publichealth interest is to keep thekids in face-to-face learning.It can be done safe andresponsibly. Its actually safer thanhaving them at home in thecommunity."

Redfield later addressed the newest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on testing and isolation that has left many confused.

On Tuesday, the top health agency reiterated that children and adults who test positive can halve their isolation time from 10 to five days if they're asymptomatic. The CDC declined to add a clear testing recommendation while saying that people can take a test if they have "access" and "want to."

PSAKI INSISTS CDC GUIDED BY SCIENCE AMID SHIFTING COVID-19 GUIDANCE

"I agree with you,its highly confusing,"Redfield said, adding that while he is in favor of reducingthe isolation time period to five days,he is "totally not in agreementwith their decision not to do atest."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky gives her opening statement during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing. November 4, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

"I think we really need toembrace a test they find, and ifyou are negative, you can test andreturn," he said. "If you are positive, you aregoing to need to get a testagain. I personally would not waituntil day 10, because the whole purposewas to get people back into theworkforce.You test at day five, and you arenegative, you go back to work.If you are positive, stay inisolation.Test at day seven and if youre now negative,you go back to work."

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Redfield said the updated guidance doesn't consider"knowledge of infection asfundamental to whether youreturn to work or the issue ofschools, [based on] what we call test and stay."

"Itscritical we use this testing asour guide," he said.

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Former CDC Director Redfield: The safest place for children right now is in the classroom - Fox News

Parliament fire is finally under control

Parliament has confirmed the fire on the roof of the National Assembly is finally under control. The fire flared up on Monday afternoon. A devastating fire ripped through Parliament on Sunday.Parliament said in a statement:

It is with a great sense of relief that Parliament confirms the containment of the fire flare up at the roof of the National Assembly (NA) on Monday, and there has not been any further fire incident.

The last 24 hours had been critical, with firefighters closely monitoring and combing through the scene.

After the firefighters contained the fire at midnight yesterday, they remained on site, although at reduced capacity for monitoring the situation, to conduct a thorough assessment and to establish the extent of the damage caused.

Since Sunday, there have been 300 firefighters working shifts and over 60 fire engine vehicles. One fire engine remains at the scene currently, with five crew members working throughout all the floors, ensuring no flare-ups.

The firefighters will assess later this afternoon for possible total withdrawal from the site today and see if the building is safe to be handed over to the South African Police Services.

The Presiding Officers of Parliament, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Mr Amos Masondo applauds the lionhearted firefighters. The firefighters fought to bring the fire at the Parliamentary precinct under control.

The extent of the damage in the NA is severe. The Presiding Officers confirm that efforts to save the Mace were successful yesterday after two days of the fire. It has been retrieved from its safe storage without any damage.

The Mace is an important symbol that signifies the authority and sitting of the NA. It is carried into the Chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms and announces the arrival of the Speaker of the NA.

It signifies that the House is formally in session and that its proceedings are official. The Mace was designed to reflect the history, traditions, and diverse cultures and languages of South Africa. The design also celebrates its natural beauty, plant and animal life, and rich mineral resources.

The NA Speaker remains grateful for saving the Mace as its recreation could be difficult.

The Museum is also unharmed from the ravaging fire including artworks and heritage objects and the Keiskamma tapestry on the ground floor of the Old Assembly Building.

The Keiskamma Tapestry tells the South African story in beadwork, skins and embroidery from the perspective of ordinary people. It is 112 metres long and 70 metres high. Women from the Keiskamma Art Project, a community initiative and non-profit organisation in Hamburg, on the banks of the Keiskamma River in the Ngqushwa region of the Eastern Cape, made this artwork.

It is a powerful symbol of our people's Parliament. It demonstrates our support for women's empowerment and support for local initiatives. The former Speaker of the NA, Ms Baleka Mbete unveiled the tapestry in 2006 on International Women's Day, 8 March.

As part of the internal stakeholder meetings yesterday, the Presiding Officers briefed the leaders of political parties, the Chief Whips Forum and Nehawu leadership.

The Presiding Officers reassured everyone that no stone would be left unturned in getting to the bottom of how the incident happened. They said Parliament would conduct its internal investigation on any lapses that contributed to the incident.

"We don't want to make any speculations about what may have led to this incident, but we continue to be very concerned that the institution of Parliament and its symbols could be destroyed in this manner. So, we will demand full accountability and if so found, for those responsible to be punished", said the Presiding Officers.

They further asked all to work together despite the incident and find ways to ensure that Parliament's work continues and will not allow the disaster to derail the institution's important work.

Furthermore, they confirmed that the State of the Nation Address, Budget Speech, and other programmes would proceed as planned.

Parliament will share further details about where and how these events will occur.

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DEVELOPING | Firefighters withdraw from Parliament, buildings handed over to Hawks - News24

Surf Life Saving WA (SLSWA) is urging caution with medium risk ratings for this Saturdays second hour of the West Coast Zone (WCZ) abalone fishing season between 7am and 8am.

SLSWA modelling uses the best available information on the conditions from multiple sources and rates the risks for factors, such as wind speed, tide, swell height, and swell period.

The modelling recommends the fishing hour can go ahead on 8 January, with appropriate caution, as conditions are expected to appear favourable with a swell period of 11-12 seconds and waves expected to be breaking at near 1-1.5m height in most locations; particularly outside of the central metro area. However, the amount of water likely to be pushing across reef platforms remains a key concern.

Reef holes and drop offs can be hazardous for those with low swimming capabilities and fishers are also encouraged to wear appropriate clothing when collecting the abalone.

Moderate temperatures of 27-30 degrees are expected for this Saturdays fishing session, with an average wave height of around 1.5 metres, particularly in Peel and North Metro areas and moderate offshore winds, gusting to 18 knots.

Licensed abalone fishers who plan to take part in this Saturdays fishing hour in the WCZ between Moore River and the Busselton Jetty will still need to make their own evaluation of the sea and weather conditions on the day, to ensure they have the water skills to manage them.

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Senior Management Officer Nick Blay said fishers should follow safety advice.

Personal safety should be the focus of abalone fishers at all times, Mr Blay said. SLSWA lifesavers will be monitoring the abalone fishing this Saturday, but each fisher must not take risks beyond their skill level in the water and on the reefs.

Apart from this Saturday, fishing between 7am and 8am, there will be two other abalone fishing sessions at the same time on Saturday 5 February and Saturday 19 February.

DPIRD Compliance officers will again be at WCZ abalone fishing locations this Saturday, to check fishers have the required licence and are complying with the rules.

More on abalone fishing rules is available at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au. SLSWA has abalone fishing safety tips at: https://www.mybeach.com.au/safety-rescue-services/coastal-recreation/abalone/.

We urge anyone heading to WAs beaches at any time to switch on their Sea Sense check http://www.sharksmart.com.au or download the SharkSmart WA app. The app combines latest shark activity, as well as beach safety features such as Surf Life Saving WA patrolled beaches and weather forecasts, to help people plan their trips to the ocean.

Media contact: Ashley Malone, DPIRD media liaison - mobile 0418 901 767

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West Coast Zone abalone fishing season proceeds with caution - Government of Western Australia