January 14 Emergency Preparedness Minutes

Emergency Preparedness Committee Meeting:  January 14th, 2921 via Zoom

Members present:  Yvette Fleming, Jan Victorson, Harry Kellogg, Marie Versen, Roger Lindgren, Guy McGuire and Owen Polifka
Old Business:
 
EPC Survey:
 
It was noted that the survey summary was not yet on the town’s website.  Roger stated that he will have Anna include it in the website.  In addition, the EPRPs will be providing each of their residents a copy of the survey summary when they meet.
Emergency Shelter:
 
Thanks to the efforts of Yvette and Roger, the Red Cross has deemed our town’s Community Center as an official Red Cross Shelter.  In addition, the town board approved this distinction as such.
Emergency Preparedness Resource Persons (EPRPs):
 
Harry and Yvette met on December 16th, 2020 and formulated a curriculum agenda for the future EPRP training session.  It decided that it would be prudent to wait until the Covid-19 issue began to resolve so that the session could be an in-person outdoor meeting.  The EPRPs could then be given the materials to provide to their respective residents.  In  addition, an in-person event is obviously more effective for training purposes than training via zoom.  This training session will be scheduled for Thursday, May 6th, 2021 provided the vaccination endeavor renders it safe to meet in person.  Yvette and Harry agreed to send a reminder notice to the EPRPs three or four weeks prior to the training session.  Yvette designed individual enlarged maps for each of the regions (neighborhoods) to be used by that region’s EPRP illustrating where homes are located with the assistance of the Bayfield County Zoning Department.  We will allow each EPRP to decide whatever approach they wish to employ in order to meet with their residents.  Some may want to travel to each of their resident’s home (door-to-door) while others may want to schedule a get together to connect with their residents.
Roger suggested that we conduct a mock training session just for our members to best prepare for the EPRP May sixth training session.  We decided to schedule such a mock session in conjunction with our next regular monthly meeting (4/24/21).
We will also ask the EPRPs to take the FEMA CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) course independently prior to their training session.  The CERT course is more tailored to what the EPRPs should know as opposed to the FEMA ICS-100 course.  Roger and Yvette will design a packet of materials to be given to the residents by their respective EPRPs.  These packets would include items that we have previously discussed such as the survey summary mentioned above as well as the flip charts.
New Business:
 
Harry will send us his latest version of the Flip Chart information for us to review.  As discussed in previously meetings, we will initially order 200 copies from Hart Graphics of Ashland.
We discussed various methods to inform or warn our residents of an impending emergency or disaster.  We would encourage the EPRPs (as well as residents) to obtain a NOAA radio as a method to receive emergency alerts, typically with the involvement of  Bayfield County’s Emergency Management.  In addition, we discussed such methods of alerting the public either by automatic text message alerts, email alerts or both.  Roger suggested that the Cornucopia Campground host be included in these notifications by whatever methodology is employed.
Next Meeting:  Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 at 6:30pm via zoom.
Respectfully submitted,
Owen