The Ringgold County Emergency Management Office is located on the third floor of the courthouse in Mount Ayr, Iowa. Office hours are 8:00am-4:00pm Monday through Friday.

Emergency Management Coordinator 
Melissia Stark

About Emergency Management

Emergency Management is a coordinated effort, involving local, state, and federal government agencies as well as volunteer organizations and businesses. Within an integrated emergency management framework, these entities assist citizens and their communities to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and eliminate or reduce the effects of natural, man-made, civil, and technological emergencies and disasters.

Ringgold County Emergency Management is the department that is responsible for the entire county's, including the cities within the county, emergency plans. Those plans include everything from pre-disaster mitigation, a multi-agency response to a car accident, hazardous materials spill, school shootings, terrorism, recovery from an incident and everything in between.

We are also the Homeland Security contact for the county and distribute important information from state and federal agencies to local officials and response agencies.

What we do:

• Develop and maintain the County's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan providing emergency management planning for the entire county
• Operate, maintain and enhance the Ringgold County Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
• Coordinate emergency management activities, services and programs within the county, including: Teaching people how to get through a disaster
• Help equip local first responders

• Mak disaster assistance available to our communities, businesses, and individuals 
• Host trainings and emergency simulations, including yearly drills and spotter training Serve as liaison to the State Division of Emergency Management and other local emergency management agencies and organizationsServe as the liaison and the coordinator of municipalities’ requests for State and Federal assistance during pre and post-disaster operation

SIREN Testing

Ringgold County Emergency Management and Ringgold County Sheriff's Dispatch test the outdoor and indoor warning systems (sirens) the first Tuesday of each month at 9:00 AM unless the weather is stormy or unless there is a real live emergency

Outdoor sirens are located on the East Side of Mt. Ayr (South of Clearview Nursing Home, West Side of Mt. Ayr (near Elementary School), Intersection of Hwy 2 E/169N- (Near Smith Oil / Mt. Ayr Inn), Sun Valley Lake, City of Diagonal and multiple indoor warning systems that were purchased through a community grant by Ringgold County EMA.

Contact EMA Coordinator:

Melissia Stark
109 W. Madison St.
Mount Ayr, IA 50854
641-464-3344
mstark@ringgoldcounty.us