Don Chinery starting a new era in Hawaii
County Public Information Officer served through Ivan and Dennis
BY B.J. DAVIS Gulf Breeze News bjdavis@gulfbreezenews.com

Forever a newsman, Chinery reads the Gulf Breeze News.

Santa Rosa County will lose the captain at the helm of public information. Don Chinery, Public Information Officer (PIO) is retiring after six years of service to the county.

"We're in good shape. I've done everything I know how to do," said Chinery about the state of the public information office. Chinery received criticism in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan for a seemingly lack of county information. Chinery explained the cause resulted from the hurricane's catastrophic effects to communications including cellular

phone and the county website which county officials were under the impression was hosted offsite.

"We were told the website was hosted in Atlanta. It was hosted in Pensacola," said Chinery. Chinery explained Emergency operations Center (EOC) officials lost cellular communication through the carrier NEXTEL on September 11, the day before Ivan made landfall. He said two landlines were available in which he utilized by contacting various media outlets in Tallahassee to inform residents returning to the area of the devastation. He said he had a feeling the storm was bad news before it entered the Gulf of Mexico.

"When Ivan was in the Caribbean, I came in (to the EOC) Sunday night, and the Emergency management Director and I looked at it because I've spent my life at sea and I understand how storms work," said Chinery. "I said 'this is going go be a problem.'" Chinery said the only sleep he got from that point until Saturday, a week later, after Ivan was two hours. He said he performed many of the countywide PIO duties for other agencies on top of his at the county level.

"Everything that could go wrong did," he said.

After realizing the weaknesses in EOC communication infrastructure, he spent the next year training volunteer public information teams and implementing an in-county program to disseminate information among emergency staff during a storm. By the time Dennis struck ten months later, the EOC was prepared.

"When Hurricane Dennis came through, everything worked. That gave us the opportunity to prove ourselves," said Chinery.

Chinery boasts a colorful career including the military, world travel and American Bandstand. He said while being raised in Lakehurst, N.J. and left home at the age of 17 to join the Navy. He said prior to that, he traveled to Philadelphia, Pa. often participate in American Bandstand. Chinery spent the first three years of his Navy life in Japan then upon retuning spent time performing in rock bands. After his third trip around the globe, he sang in a band in New Zealand. He then did six tours in Vietnam and witnessed the fall of Saigon.

"We saved a lot of refuges, and I'm very proud of that," he said. After becoming a Chief Petty Officer, he obtained his Merchant Marine license enabling him to finish his Naval career in 1981 as a divorced, single parent Navy Officer. He then became the officer in charge of the correctional custody at NAS Pensacola and retired as Lieutenant Commander.

He began writing letters to the editors about serious subjects sending them to several area newspapers. But his voice wasn't being heard so he began writing satire.

"I wrote what I considered funny letters to the editor. They were printed and I got feedback," said Chinery. "I still didn't have the community involvement I thought we needed.

That's when he turned his attention toward zoning.

"Zoning in 1985 was a big, heated issue. You could see where we were going to grow, but it wasn't that bad at the time, so people had mixed emotions about it," he said. He explained that a city hall meeting at a packed Oriole Beach Elementary School housed a community split down the middle regarding zoning. Zoning was granted to form Sandpiper Village where Chinery became president of the homeowners' association. After a great deal of community involvement with area homeowners' associations, the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Halfway to Midway" involved himself in local publications such as the Santa Rosa Sun where he worked from 1992 to 1995. The publication was eventually bought out by the Santa Rosa Press Gazette and Chinery went to work for the Gulf Breeze Sentinel between 1998 and 2001 before assuming his position at the county. Chinery also became the face of Countyline, a countywide program that started in 1989 while he was writing letters to the editor.

"A friend of mine told me about this local cable channel that was looking for anyone to go on the air," said Chinery. "I said I might do something like that."

Now, after 18 years, Chinery will be signing off as host of Countyline.

After post-hurricane turmoil and insurance company battles, Chinery has recently purchased a coffee bean farm in Hawaii where he plans to retire.