By Kelly Sheehan
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
Copyright 2006 The Hartford Courant Company
PLAINVILLE, Conn. — Charles Motes, the town’s director of health, was appointed last week by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to the state’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board.
“It’s quite an honor and quite a job,” said Motes, 63. “I’m ecstatic.”
The board’s 41 members represent the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health and oversee EMS systems. They meet monthly to make recommendations to the state about how to improve EMS regulations, policies and guidelines.
Baker Salsbury, outgoing president of the association and director of East Hartford’s health and social services department, said the association unanimously recommended Motes for the position. There were no other candidates.
“I’ve known [Motes] for 10 years,” Salsbury said. `"We recommended him for his experience, service to the state and his involvement with the Disaster Medical Assistance Team.”
In September, Motes traveled to New Orleans with about 30 other DMAT members to help reopen two hospitals that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In 1964, Motes also served as a preventive medicine technician for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. While in Vietnam, Motes said, he conducted studies and tried to help the civilian population overcome diseases “that Americans only read about in books.”
“It was an exciting and rewarding experience to practice public health at one of the most basic levels,” Motes said.
Motes returned to the United States after three years and took a position as Plainville’s sanitarian, which he kept until 1975. Since then, he has served as Chesprocott Health District’s director of environmental health, the chief of Milford’s environmental health division and East Hartford’s director of health and social services.
Motes was recommended by the health directors association for the position after one of the EMS advisory board’s members resigned. Motes said he has been attending board meetings since January, when he found out that he was being looked at as a possible candidate.