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LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANNING COMMITTEE Minutes February 19, 2009

Al Baker called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM with 13 members present.  Members present were Alfred Baker, Keith Bryant, Vivian Button, John Crosby, Richard Everett, Frank Goldsby, Danny Law, Marshall Lewis, Nahum Manzano, Sharon Phelps, Darren Russett, Luis Sandoval, and Janet Thomeczek.

John Crosby made a motion to approve the Minutes of last meeting. Frank Goldsby seconded. Motion carried

Don is teaching Command and General staff in Olathe.

FEMA has updated NIMS and Incident Command courses to IS 700.a, IS 100.a and IS 200.a and IS 800.b.

Vivian has not sent out the Resource Typing letters to the private industries.  She hopes to have that done in the next 30 days.

Last Friday we received all of the information for our Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).  We hope to submit all of the information to E-fm consulting next week so we can get our COOP plan finished.

Emergency Management received a Mitigation Grant and E-fm consulting is going to do the update to our Mitigation Plan.  It will be multi-jurisdictional and will include the City of Ulysses, Grant County, USD 214 and Pioneer Electric Cooperative Inc.  E-fm Consulting did our original Mitigation Plan.  We will just have to help them with information.  A Mitigation Plan looks at the problems the County and City could face and how to lessen the impact.

The Hickok , Kansas siren has been moved.  However, it is not working at this time. The sirens at the Fairgrounds and the football field are also down.  Blue Valley mailed out the mother board to the Fairgrounds’ siren yesterday.  We are trying to set up a time to have them come out and look at the sirens.

John Crosby, Danny Law, Janet Thomeczek, Jerry Deckert and Al Baker volunteered to be on our Exercise Committee.  John stated that the committee needed to meet with the department heads and work out the details for the School Shooting or Intrusion exercise.

Janet Thomeczek talked about the Hospital Table top exercise.  They had a good turnout with 35 people present on January 27. Everyone learned a lot about what happens in a bus and train accident before the patient reaches the hospital and after the patient reaches the hospital. She also had some questions on her alternate facility paperwork.

We received 5 notifications from Continuous Animal feeding Operations (CAFO) on Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions.

National Weather Service will conduct their Storm identification and spotter training on March 10^th   at the Grant County Civic Center in the Lawson Room at 7:00PM.

Dodge City will hold an IS 400 Class on March 4^th and 5^th. Johnson has tentatively scheduled an IS 300 class on March 12 and 13 and an IS 400 class on March 30 & 31

Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services have developed a guide for Assisting individuals with Functional needs during evacuation and sheltering. This guide will go into our Emergency Operation Plan as an annex or addendum to ESF 6 Mass Care, housing and human services.

Don completed the State Preparedness Report for the region.  He is now working on the Capabilities for the County and Region.

Matt Mercer is no longer our Regional Coordinator.  At this time his position has not been filled.  They are revamping the job description before they put the job up on the State Job website.

John Crosby talked about the Commissioners allowing the Emergency Services to use the Western Prairie Care Home building for training, before it is torn down.  Al Baker asked if there was Grant money available to purchase the Care Home and turn it into a regional training facility.  John stated he has a meeting with the Garden City Community College and he would visit with them. This will be looked into further.

John Crosby stated they had not had a lot of fire runs. Everyone has been really good about not burning when conditions are bad.  People are suppose to call the Law Enforcement Center before they have a controlled burn.  If conditions are bad, John calls the Law Enforcement Center and informs them to tell people who call in that it is too dangerous to burn today.  The Fire Department has received their new Hurst Extrication tool.  The old tool was set at 85,000 pounds of pressure the new one is 250,000 pounds of pressure.  The old tool would not cut some of the new cars with the new  exotic metals they are made from.  He also has it in his budget to replace the other extrication tools this year. The Fire Department has two sets. We are the second Fire Department in the state to receive the new tools.

Marshall Lewis with the Area Mental Health state they are looking at ways to reduce their spending because of the budget cuts.

Richard Everett talked about the March Madness KDHE is putting on and how the Grant County Health Department and Bob Wilson Hospital would be involved.  Part of the exercise is to test all of the Amateur Radios at the Hospitals as part of the interoperable communications.  The three area IMT Communications specialist will be contacting the State with their Winlink system.

Janet Thomeczek stated the Ambulance entrance at the hospital should be functional around June 1^st.  The building project seems to be about 30 days ahead of schedule.  They will start bricking the building next week.  They are scheduled to move in on September 5^th but do not take legal possession until April of 2010.  She has submitted her Mass Care and Evacuation Annex and is now working on the Alternate site plan.

Nahum Manzano with BP talked about the disaster drill they conducted this morning at the Jayhawk plant. He stated they have a few minor projects that will start at the end of March or the first of April.

Darrin Russet with Pioneer Natural Resources talked about their Emergency Operation Plan and they will be testing it with all four groups of people.  They would like to have one full scale exercise to involve the Emergency Services.  They are required to do an exercise once a year.

Luis Sandoval from BP stated they have 7 rigs in the area. The middle of March they will be bringing in a company to conduct a drilling rig rescue exercise. They will present a PowerPoint presentation of the information before the actual exercise.

Danny Law from Pioneer Electric Cooperative Inc. stated they have between 20 and 22 construction crews working on the FEMA rebuilding project.  They have about 600 more miles to rebuild.  He will be going to Sublette to conduct Electrical Safety. Ed Wiltse and Danny Law conducted the Electrical Safety for the Community Emergency Response Team on Monday night February 16.  He stated the one thing to remember is to Keep people away from the electric lines and contact Pioneer to come shut off the power before going into the area.  They will be there as soon as they can get there.  We talked about the big equipment that has been coming thru town.  Danny stated it would be nice to know when they are coming so if lines need to be raised they can have some one available.  He stated most of the time they are called after they have hit the lines or torn them down.  Most of these trucks have a specific route they have to take and cannot deviate.

We also talked about the KDHE office on Main Street. Ethel Evans is working out of this office along with 2 other people.

Darren Russet who is also on the Golf Board asked about training and equipment for out at the new lake.  He stated they have added 2 feet to the walls and the shallow end is 4 feet and it is as deep as 10 to 12 feet.  The water is also about 5 feet from the 18^th hole.  John stated the fire Department has minimal equipment but he has it in his budget to purchase some equipment this year.  Darren stated it was amazing how much traffic is out at the golf course and lake.

Remember the Health Fair it is March 21.

Vivian Button gave an update on CERT (Community Emergency Response Team).  We are buying equipment with our Grant monies and have applied for an additional $8000 from the 2008 Grant.  We have been invited to Hutchison in May for an all state CERT exercise.  We will be conducting the CERT training for the Community Learning Center.

Frank Goldsby made a motion to adjourn.  Janet Thomezcek seconded.  Motion carried.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 PM.