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REIDSVILLE — Steve Hale saw house fires, ice storms, floods and tornadoes before he retired as Rockingham County’s Emergency Services coordinator at the end of 2010.

But now he thinks another disaster may be in the making.

As of Sept. 2, the management of many Red Cross services that had been coordinated locally were turned over to the Alamance County Red Cross chapter.

“I think it’s a huge mistake,” said Hale, who worries that the change could impede the delivery of relief services.

When Hale, now chairman of the local Red Cross board of directors, was at those disasters, Red Cross representatives got there within an hour, he said.

But he’s worried the prompt response time will become a thing of the past.

Bill Brent, the regional executive director of the Heart of Carolina Region of the Red Cross, said the changes will make the American Red Cross more efficient and does not believe it will affect the delivery of services.

Rockingham County volunteers will still respond, he said.

Based in Guilford County, Brent oversees seven Red Cross chapters that stretch from Boone to Burlington and from the North Carolina/Virginia state line, south to Davidson and Montgomery counties.

Brent said the changes have been in the making for four years and the Rockingham board should not have been surprised by them.

Hale said he knew to expect change when he became chairman this year. The Red Cross was promoting “One Red Cross,” a more centralized means of delivering disaster and emergency services.

But he never thought the transition would mean taking the management of the local facility out of the local board’s hands, or that managing the delivery of the most urgent services would be relegated to staff in Alamance County.

Three local positions were eliminated in the restructuring — the executive director, the disaster services director and the health and safety programs manager.

The executive director, Jana Nowell, has been offered a regional position.

The Rockingham County chapter now is staffed by one full-time office manager and a part-time employee who manages blood services. They report to the Alamance County chapter.

The local Red Cross food pantry, the only one operated by the Red Cross in the state, will continue to be run by volunteers as long as there are local resources to support it, Brent said.

The local board was informed of these changes at a July meeting. That prompted Harry Mullis, a Reidsville resident who has been a board member for 28 years, to resign on the spot.

“I still believe in the mission of the Red Cross, but I don’t believe an abstract management group can function as well as our local board, where we are very close to the people we serve,” Mullis said.

Previous changes to centralize Red Cross functions have not gone smoothly, said Pam Cundiff of Eden, one of the 20 local chapter board members.

A year ago, the accounting procedures were centralized and the local chapter paid late fees when bills were not paid on time and also had to pay for expedited delivery services for payroll checks when they first were calculated wrong, she said.

“I greatly fear further consolidation,” said Cundiff, who anticipates more board resignations.

Hale said he has stayed in touch with emergency personnel across the state and has heard about post- consolidation delays in Red Cross response times.

Brent said he isn’t hearing that.

“We’ve gone through a significant staff reduction, and no community officials have expressed concerns to me about response time,” Brent said.

Brent said that the standard of the Red Cross is to respond within two hours, and they are often there sooner.

But it’s more than delayed response time that concerns Hale.

“Guilford County or Alamance County leadership has no clue how to handle events in Shiloh or Pelham,” Hale said.

He’s initiated a letter campaign to local congressional representatives to oppose the changes.

Meanwhile , Brent praises the staff and the local volunteers. “The Rockingham County Chapter has excelled in any number of areas,” Brent said. “They’ve been an absolutely wonderful chapter.”

The changes, he said, were not based on performance.

And that’s what miffs Hale.

Hale and Mullis both say that some chapters have had financial issues, but the Rockingham chapter always has raised the money  it needed to operate. In fact, the board purchased its building on N.C. 14 in Reidsville and paid off the mortgage with locally generated funds.

“As a board, we were used to being a part of the (management) process,”  Hale said.

Brent said the board is no longer a governing board with jurisdiction to hire staff, pass budgets and oversee the local operation.

The new role of the Rockingham chapter’s board, he said, is to promote the mission of the American Red Cross and engage the community by encouraging people to be blood donors, volunteers and financial donors.

Cundiff has no desire to be a fundraiser.

“I will be a blood donor, sponsor blood drives, and my contributions will be specified for the food pantry because I know that will benefit the people in Rockingham County.”

“In good old Rockingham County words, we’ve been waylaid,” Hale said.

Contact Myla Barnhardt at 627-1781, Ext. 116 or myla.barnhardt@news-record.com