The county commission announced Robert Church as interim director of Emergency Medical Services Tuesday.

He comes to Marion with 18 years experience as a paramedic. For the past year, Church worked in St. Luke Hospital. He spent the last eight years as a nurse, working for Via Christi Hospital in Wichita.

The decision was made Monday to offer him the position, commission chairman Dianne Novak said. Church was given 24 hours to accept, and did so at a special meeting Tuesday.

The announcement came two days before director Ed Debesis’ resignation took effect.