PHOENIX, Ore. – After the devastation of the Almeda fire, the city of Medford is helping Jackson County by ‘loaning’ it one of its biggest leaders for recovery efforts.
Kelly Madding is the Deputy City Manager for the city of Medford. “The city has been very collaborative and will continue to be,” said Madding, “This crisis needs sort of immediate all hands on deck and is willing to do whatever it takes to get that.”
She’s worked for the county before, and most recently as Ashland City Administrator, but her resume stretches across the Rogue Valley. “I have contacts in most of the cities and I was in planning with Jackson County, so I have familiarity in planning and most of the city managers,” said Madding.
John Vial with the Emergency Operations Center said there are three key goals for Madding.
One is to provide information to the public. Vial says Madding has been able to do that through the Multi-Agency Resource Centers. “There’s the part of this where we are starting to talk about transitional housing and where we put some transitional housing to help people out in the interim. Then, there’s the long term plan of how do we start rebuilding our communities? Kelly has skills in all those areas,” said Vial.
Madding’s familiarity with city and county leaders can only help as we begin the recovery process. “The county is exceptionally grateful to the city of Medford,” said Vial, “she’s making a big difference for the whole community.”
Kelly Madding will be helping the county for about a month, before returning to her Medford position.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.