Reed new head of emergency

Leland Reed has accepted the positions of Mashall County Emergency Management director and Fire Service coordinator.

Reed was the person chosen by the late Hugh Hollowell to follow in his footsteps. Hollowell died of complications with COVID-19 about a month and a half ago.

Reed started out as a volunteer firefighter for the Byhalia Fire Department back when Hollowell was working with Synergy Gas in Byhalia and fire chief at the Watson Fire Department.

“Hugh talked to me so much about wanting me to take his position when he retired,” Reed said. “It is a job of challenges. Mr. Hugh started it and finished some of his dreams. I’ve watched him grow since. He was a go-to person you could always talk to and get a steady answer.”

Reed said he talked with a number of people before accepting the position.

He spoke with Terry Wages, executive director of the Mississippi Fire Academy, and got a nod.

“I love to accept a challenge,” Reed said. “He helped me to come to a good conclusion. I really wanted to do this.”

Reed, who is married to E-911 director Stacy Reed, has served as president of the Marshall County Fire Chief’s Association the last two years.

“Ron Ray and I were trying to put everything together for the fire departments for the end of the year (report),” Reed said. “It’s kind of hard to walk through the door and not know what he (Hollowell) had going. It’s still a steep learning curve.”

Reed immediately began working with the state fire marshal and with the state fire academy.

“They have been great in helping fill the void,” he said.

Reed came to Victoria with his parents as a teenager. His dad had retired from the Marine Corps and taken the job as director of operations and security at the Memphis International Airport.

His dad, Doyle Reed, was from Texas and mother, Ruth Reed, from Ringgold, La. Reed graduated in 1984 from Byhalia High School and became a volunteer firefighter in Byhalia under chief Trent Johnson.

He worked at Big Star a while after high school. The store was operated by Jim Burrow. Later he attended State Technical College in Memphis, Tenn., then took a job with Sewell Plastics (later Constar International) in Collierville, Tenn., where he worked 22 years until the plant shut down.

While there, he worked as a volunteer firefighter and went to the state fire academy. In January 2009, after Constar closed in 2008, Reed went to work with MedStat ambulance service as an EMT. He was certified as an EMT at Northwest Community College.

And the same year he took the position of full-time fire chief at Byhalia, a job that required wearing many hats. He left there to join the Holly Springs Fire Department as assistant fire chief in 2018.

Byhalia Mayor Phil Malone praised Reed for taking on so many tasks he asked him to do.

“Anytime I ask him to do something, he answers,” Malone said. “And I still call him when I get in a corner. I think a lot of the guy. I hated to see him go. But when it’s progress for a person, you don’t want to hold them back.”

E-911 commissioner Bobby Bonds has known Reed since he was fire chief in Byhalia.

“He did it all,” Bonds said. “Everybody went to him when they needed something. He knows what he’s doing. I don’t think they could have picked a better person. You are not going to beat him (find a better employee).”

Reed goes to all the meetings and stays informed.

“He is going to show up,” Bonds said. “He is going to be on time. And he is going to know his business when he gets there. He ran everything he ran like a top. We’re lucky to have him.”