October 27, 2011

Garnett, Kansas

The Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) met on October 27, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. with the following members present: John Alford, EKAE; Nate Cunningham, Anderson County EMS/St. Rose; Marvin Grimes, Anderson County Emergency Mgmt; Brianna Hiles, SEK Multi-County Health Department; Kristie Kinney, City of Garnett; Trent McCown, KDWP; J.D. Mersman, Anderson County Fire/Emergency Mgmt.; Michelle Miller, Anderson County Public Information Officer – Road Dept.; Bob Palmer, Lybarger Oil; Kevin PeKarek, Garnett Police Chief; Alan Quaintance, USD # 365; Robert Robbins, Anderson County EMS; Christina Rush, Anderson County Hospital; Cheryl Strobel, Apple Bus Co.; Oscar West, EKAE; Margo Williams, Anderson County Hospital; and Jessi Zillner, Anderson County Communication Center.

Absent: Jolene Alexander, USDA – FSA; Don Blome, USD #365; Troy S. Hart, Garnett Fire; Jeff T. Hupp, Anderson County Sheriff; James K. Johnson, Anderson County Commissioner; Jim Manning, KDWP; Don Nungesser, Anderson County EMS; Glenn Mudd, Beachner Grain; Johnnie Riley, Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline; Leslea Rockers, East Central KS Agency on Aging; Kevin Ryan, KDOT; Pat Tate, Public Safety; Mike Thweatt, Kansas Highway Patrol.

CALL TO ORDER

J.D. Mersman, Committee Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

John Alford noted that Reading, KS was misspelled on page four (4). Michelle Miller questioned the 800 phone number for the hospital, which is actually the hospital’s radio call number. Michelle Miller noted the header dates on additional pages had not been changed. A motion was made by John Alford, seconded by Michelle Miller to approve the minutes of October 27, 2011 as amended. Motion passed.

CHAIRPERSONS REPORT

J.D. Mersman, Chairperson, welcomed Jackie Miller, Kansas Department of Emergency Management (KDEM) Southeast Regional Coordinator. Jackie is going to help with our training and exercise planning workshop today and help us plan our exercises for the next three (3) years, and what direction we want to go on our training.

OLD BUSINESS

Michelle Miller provided an update on the Rainbow Bridge construction project east of town. Construction crews have two (2) pillars done. The crews are working on the other two (2) pillars and hope to have those finished next week. She said they don’t have many workers on site and they have to jack hammer down 12-feet through rock for the pillars, so work is progressing slowly. It may be January before crews are ready to pour the deck. John Alford asked what the completion date is on the project. Mrs. Miller said crews have 65 more working days. Mr. Alford stated there will be a week for the deck to cure after they pour it, if it’s not freezing. Mrs. Miller stated that they will use heaters to warm it if it is freezing. Lester Welsh meets with KDOT and the construction company every two (2) weeks.

NEW BUSINESS

Jackie Miller, KDEM Regional Coordinator, stated that the purpose of the Training and Exercise Planning Workshop is to provide an opportunity to develop a coordinated and comprehensive workshop training calendar of capabilities based processes that support the priorities and needs of all response partners. We want to translate the priorities of the community into objectives and exercises. We want to coordinate the exercises to meet various needs such as the health department requirements and hospital requirements, and this is a great opportunity to mesh those training requirements together. We want to track improvement actions, both good and bad. As exercises are planned out, she will work with our local Emergency Management to try to identify any funding sources, or pool resources so the expense is not on one entity. This worksheet is called a Training and Exercise Plan Worksheet (TEPW) and is designed to assess our capabilities and preparedness levels of all the participating agencies.

The TEPW should be built by building blocks, rather than trying to do a full-scale exercise next spring. Emphasis will be placed on coordinating all agencies and include private industry as well. Local capabilities will be assessed. Threats, natural or man-made, to our county will also be assessed.

Capabilities identified for our jurisdiction included: Hospital’s ability to respond to mass casualty, within reason; mass casualty trailer; rescue truck for water rescue, hazmat, wreck, or building collapse; Mass prophylaxis through the Health Department; Communication, noting there are needs with this as well; City of Garnett and Anderson County debris management; and City of Garnett is a full utility provider for power, gas and water.

Needs identified for our jurisdiction included: Emergency Communication Center training if system is down. This would be a good table top discussion and it was noted that Franklin County has a mobile tower they could set up here if we need and if they are not using it somewhere else. Crawford County also has communication on wheels. It was noted that we need better coordination between entities on how things affect other, such as the ethanol spill and the hospital needing to be alerted.

Threats and Hazards identified included: weather; transportation related, such as rail, trucks and pipelines; terrorism, which can include disgruntled people; and school threats with the new forms of communication and bullying.

Previous trainings have included: school shootings, chemical spill and actual past disasters.

Exercises can be seminars, which is essentially training. A workshop is the same sort of thing in that you are learning something, but you are also doing something in the plan review. Table Top Exercises are discussion based. Drills are single function specific drills that are often times easy to do, such as the hospital decontamination procedure; and Communications Drills are where you test your Code Red system and using a call down tree. Functional and full scale drills are more complicated. Full scale drills are where you roll equipment and triage patients. We need to look at policies, plans and procedures because this is what we are testing, rather than testing people. Training equipment and personnel are all part of our preparedness strategy.

The new grant guidance requires that we have four (4) exercises a year, with one (1) in each quarter. Previous requirements were one (1) exercise per quarter. A table top, workshop, or call down drill will all qualify as an exercise. Another requirement is that we must have a full scale, EOC based exercise once every three (3) years, in addition to a Training and Exercise Workshop every year between July and December.

Bob Palmer asked what happens when we get everything worked out together in a plan and we have a large disaster and FEMA comes in and takes over and stops everything, as has happened in other cities such as Greenburg, where it halted things from happening as quickly as they felt it needed to. Jackie Miller replied that it is a tough question, because there are many ways you can go with it. She said using Reading, KS as an example, and Garnett is larger than Reading, KS, FEMA didn’t get in the way, because the way the rules are, you don’t really know for quite awhile, unless it’s a Greensburg type of incident, whether FEMA is going to be able to help you out. When you have FEMA onsite and they are bringing the technical expertise and the checkbook, they take control of the scene. But, most likely the types of incidents that we would have here, we probably are not going to get a lot of FEMA people on the ground right away. Recovery teams will come in later. There needs to be $3,000,000 of infrastructure damage before you are looking at big reimbursement through the State. A Local Declaration is when local Emergency Management asks the County Commission to sign a declaration, which allows you to change procurement policies in order to act more quickly so expenditures don’t have to be approved by a full commission. It then goes to the State for a declaration that allows for help in other ways of people assistance, but no cash. When the State feels it’s a big event, and preliminary assessments put damages at $3,000,000, then they ask for the Presidential Declaration, which frees up FEMA to bring in certain assets. If it’s obvious it’s going to happen by damage assessments, FEMA will go ahead and roll certain assets without the Presidential Declaration having already come in.

Jackie Miller assisted the committee with development of a preliminary 3-year TEPW.

J.D. Mersman reported that it had been discussed at the last meeting to have a winter weather news release from the LEPC, and said that he and Michelle Miller looked at the FEMA website and Michelle prepared an article and sent it to the newspaper.

J.D. Mersman reported that the County’s Emergency Operations Plan is 277 pages, so he printed off the basic plan for everyone to review. The plan contains all the emergency service support functions that we have in the County. There is a paragraph on private industry in the plan on page 12 of the basic plan and how it falls into the County’s LEOP. He said he has 10 copies of the full LEOP for Kristie Kinney, Jessie Zillner, Brianna Hiles, and the hospital. The plan is an online plan which includes link. He will send out the link and password for everyone to access the plan online. If any changes that need to be made are noted, let Marvin Grimes or J.D. Mersman know so that they can make changes if needed. Plans are by January 2012, everyone will have had a chance to review the plan and see what everyone’s roles are.

COMMUNICATION AND REPORTS

John Alford reported that over 140 trucks ran through the ethanol plant today and asked everyone to be aware of the large trucks that come through the area every day.

The next meeting will be December 15, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at the Law Enforcement Center.

There being no further business to come before the committee, a motion was made by Michelle Miller, seconded by Robert Robbins to adjourn. Motion passed.

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Kristina L. Kinney, Secretary