Fran Martin retirement:

Whitman County commissioners in the next few weeks will be interviewing applicants for two main county jobs to replace one position.

With the impending retirement of county Public Health Director Fran Martin, 67, who also oversees the emergency management department, commissioners decided to divide her position in two.

“We’ve talked about splitting the position for two years,” said Commissioner Michael Largent. “We asked ourselves if emergency management was tied to public health and the answer is no.”

The emergency management department was under the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office, but was m...