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LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING

February 15, 2007

 

Attending the LEPC meeting were Don Button, Jeff Baier, Sharon Phelps, John Leisher, Vivian Button, Roger Gardner, George Bushnell, Tony Irvin, and  Richard Banes Jr.

 

Don Button called the meeting to order at 6:10 PM. 

 

Jeff Baier made the motion to approve the Minutes to the January meeting. Sharon Phelps second.  Minutes were approved.

 

The National Weather Service will present the Severe Weather Identification and Spotter training on March 6 at the Lawson Room at the Grant County Civic Center.  There will be two sessions: 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM. 

 

March 5, 6 and 7th Grant County and Ulysses will host a Computer aided Management of Emergency Operations (CAMEO) Course at Pioneer Communications.  The Course will be conducted by Louisiana State University.

 

May 22 and 23 Grant County and Ulysses will host an Emergency Planning and Special Needs Populations class.  This class is from Kansas Emergency Management.

 

ICS-300, Intermediate Incident Command System for Expanding Incidents training will be June 11 and 12. Prerequisites for this class are IS-100 – Introduction to ICS; IS-200 – Basic ICS; and IS-700 – NIMS, an Introduction.  This is part of the NIMS Compliance Training.  The ICS-300 class will also be in Dodge City on June 13 and 14.

 

The Regional Council is trying to set up an Incident Management Team (IMT) with at least 22 people.  So far only 14 people have signed up.  The Team will be used to help during state disasters where Emergency Operations Centers have to be open 24 hours a day or the area people are over whelmed.  The person has to be willing to commit for a 2 year term and has to have their supervisor’s approval.  The Region has set aside money for training for these individuals. 

 

The Regional Council is also looking into developing Brochures and Training on how to be better prepared for the community.  They are looking into purchasing 3 corral systems that could be housed at various locations around the Southwest Kansas Region.   A percentage of the 2006 funding went to the counties and the rest to the regional Council.  The 2007 funding will all go to the Region.  The Region is also looking into putting Ham Radio’s into each hospital and training personnel in how to use them.  In hopes all hospitals could talk to each other like Morton County could talk to Lane County. 

 

The next Regional meeting has been changed to March 9th because of training. It will be at the K-State experimental Station in Garden City.

 

George Bushnell with Pioneer Electric Coop. Inc and Roger Gardner with Pioneer Communications discussed some of the problem faced by their companies during the ice storm and how things can be improved.  The State of Kansas was very impressed with the way Pioneer Electric keep everyone informed of their progress.  Pioneer Communications was thanked for the use of the West Link phones during the time other phones were down.  The process of repairing all of the electric lines will take some time but all residences were back on by the middle of January.

 

The Kickoff meeting with FEMA for The Public Assistance paperwork has been held and we are working to get the information they need to hopefully recover some of the county’s cost associated with the ice storm.  USD 214 had some computer damage and Heating and Air conditioning damage.  The Swimming Pool had some electrical damage.  Western Prairie Care home had roof damage and water damage to the inside.  The county has a lot of road damage. 

 

There was a discussion on the difference between Public Assistance and Individual Assistance in a Federal Declaration

 

Our Cable Emergency Services Channel 10 from Pioneer Communication is on line and going.  We have road information listed at this time.  It will run 24 hours a day.

 

It was discussed how nice it would be if KULY/KFXX had a back up generator for when their power went down.   KULY/KFXX was missed while it was off the air.

 

Sharon Phelps and Toni Irvin talked about the Contamination of Salmonella in Peter Pan and Great Value Peanut Butter.  ConAgra recall of jars with the product code of “2111” on the lid.

 

The next meeting will be at 6:00 PM on March 15, 2007 at the Grant County Courthouse Basement.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM.

 

Vivian Button

 

Tentative dates: April 19, May 17, June 21, July 19, August 16, September 20, October 18, November 15, and December 20.