Phelps retires as Oktibbeha County EMA director
After working in various positions in Oktibbeha County since 1992, Shank Phelps is retiring as Oktibbeha County EMA/E-911 director.
Phelps’ retirement was approved by the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors on Monday and his final day will be Friday, June 30.
Phelps said there is no specific reason or event that led to his decision to retire, but that he feels the timing is right.
“I started young, and I’ve had many years with the state,” Phelps said. “I discussed it with my family and we’ve prayed about it. Sometimes, you just know when it’s time.”
Phelps began his career as a jailer for the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office in 1992. Since then, he has been a police officer with the Starkville Police Department, a shift supervisor with the OCSO, was elected Constable of District 1 in 2012 and was appointed by the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors as EMA/9-11 Director in 2015.
“Working for the people of Oktibbeha County is all I’ve ever done,” Phelps said. “I love doing my job, I love working for the people of this county.”
Phelps said he plans to continue working for the people of Oktibbeha County. In order to retire as EMA Director, Phelps is also required to retire from his position as Constable for District 1. However, he said he plans to campaign for constable again in November
and hopes to be re-elected for the position.
Phelps was born and raised in Starkville. He attended Starkville High School, and he has watched the town grow tremendously over the years. As the city grew, so did the emergency responders. Phelps said the OCSO went from answering around 200 calls a month when he began his career to answering well beyond 700 calls a month in
the present day.
The position of EMA/E-911 director is appointed by the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors, and Phelps said it is up to them to decide who his replacement will be, but he expects for the job and the department to keep growing.
“Times are changing, and it’s going to get busier and busier, but that’s how the world works,” Phelps said.
When Phelps assumed his role in 2015, the E-911 department was located in the
old part of the jail. Phelps said he feels the biggest accomplishment of his job as director was moving the department to its new location on the second floor of the Oktibbeha County School District building beside the new City Hall.
“It was a small, confined and an older building,” Phelps said. “I was able to upgrade all our equipment and get a new location.”
The official open house for the new location was held in December 2016. Phelps gives
credit for the move and the new equipment to the Board of Supervisors.
“I couldn’t have asked for better bosses,” Phelps said of the supervisors. “They have worked with me whenever I needed something.”
After retiring on June 30, Phelps plans to spend time with his family before campaigning to run again for District 1 constable.
“I have a daughter still in high school that is going to be a junior, this year,” Phelps said. “My son has already
graduated college and he’s working in Memphis, so maybe my wife and I can go visit him, and I am fortunate enough to still have my parents I can spend more time with.”
Phelps said he wouldn’t be where he is today without his family. He said his wife of 24 years, Mitzi, has been behind him every step of the way, and his children, Cole, 22, and Claire, 16, went from door to door with him when he was campaigning for constable.
Phelps said he has enjoyed a career of working as a public servant for the people of Oktibbeha County. He said he is nervous to leave because working there is the only thing he has ever known, but he is also excited for the opportunities to see more of his family and enjoy retirement. He said if he could do it all again, he would.
“There is nothing I would go back and change,” Phelps said. “I have been a very blessed man, and I have had a wonderful career.”