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LEPC Meeting Minutes

June 26, 2008 

Don Button called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at the Grant County Fire Department.  Members present were Richard Everett, George Bushnell, Alan Olson, Jerry Jo Deckert, Todd Hampton, Vivian Button, Don Button, Ruben Flores, and Sharon Phelps.  We had one guest, James Spooner.

John Crosby made the motion to accept the minutes to the May meeting. Todd Hampton seconded and the motion was approved.

Sharon Phelps passed out fliers for the Southwest Kansas Health Initiative’s Food Bourne Illness tabletop Exercise for July 15. Kansas Department of Health and Environment mandates exercises and this will meet one of the requirements.  The Health Department needs representative from at least 4 departments to attend this meeting.  The departments who need to be represented are EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, schools and Finances.  The Departments need to RSVP by July 10.

Don Button passed out the NIMS Compliance Metrics for 2008. These are the questions we have to answer for this year and the items we have to work on if we do not have them implemented.  Don is the NIMS Point of Contact for the City of Ulysses and Grant County.  However, this year each department has to appoint a person to be in charge of the NIMS (National Incident Management System) compliance.  This person has to keep records of all the training requirements and make sure each person in the department meets these requirements.

Don will be going to Iowa with an EMAC unit.  When he returns he will be visiting with all the Elected Officials and Department Heads to get approval signatures on the new County Emergency Operations Plan.

We also talked about the Grant County Fair that starts on July 19.  We have reserved booths for Emergency Medical Services, Fire Department, Law Enforcement and Emergency Management. The booths have to be set up on Tuesday July 22 and taken down Friday night July 25.  The parade will be July 26.

Don also passed out information on Resource Typing. This is also a NIMS compliance issue.  It compiles information on what type and size of equipment each department or company has available. This is a national program to help know what is in the surround area if a disaster strikes. Don has received a grant of $7500 to help compiling this information and putting it into spread sheets.

We have received the HMEP Grant funds to send 5 people to hazmat training in Pueblo. We are working out the dates when they will be able to attend. These funds have to be allocated by September 08 and spent by December 08.

Cheryl Reitmeyer the Kansas CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Coordinator will be here Friday June 27 at 6:30 PM to pass out the certificates to the 12 people who completed the CERT Training. This will be at the Fire Department. Emergency Management has applied for a $6,000 grant to help with CERT training and equipment.  A Citizens’ Corp Council was established.  Members are Terry Crosby, Noah Holmes, Tammy Eddie and Vivian Button.  If anyone else would like to be on the Council please let Vivian know.

Finney County Emergency Management will be holding ICS-300 training on July 9 and 10 in Garden City.  They will also conduct ICS-400 class on July 23 and 24.  To attend either of these classes please contact Finney County Emergency Management.

Kansas Division of Emergency Management is sponsoring an ICS-300 class in Satanta on July 16 and 17.  You can register for this training on KS-Train.

Jerry Jo Deckert with Grant County Emergency Medical Services stated the EMT class was completed all 12 students have passed their practical test.  They are working on the written test now.  It is done online so they have to set up a time to take the test.

John Crosby stated fire calls had picked up with several grass fires.  Also mutual aid calls had increased with us going to help other counties and them coming to help us once.  With it being so dry, lightening has caused several fires.

George Bushnell stated Pioneer Electric Cooperative Inc was still working on FEMA projects from the ice storm.  And trying to keep up with the storm and wind damages to all of the counties they serve.

Alan Olson was asked about Fireworks.  He stated the information had been given to both papers. Fireworks could only be sold from July 1 to July 4.  The fireworks should not be used after 10:30 PM except on July 4^th when the time in midnight.

Sharon Phelps stated the Health Department was still working programs and doing Pre-school and Kindergarten Physicals.

Rubin Flores, City of Ulysses, stated it was going to be a long hot summer with road closures.  He stated they have 270 working days to complete the drainage/sewer project.

Next meeting date and time: July 17, 2008 at Noon

Rubin Flores made the motion to adjourn and George Bushnell seconded.

Meeting adjourned at 1:02 PM.

Submitted by Vivian Button