View of Mount Rainier at sunrise from Gig Harbor
[photo courtesy of JoAnne Gray, PEP-C]
Peninsula Emergency Preparedness Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday, 2 December 2002
Presiding / Conducting: Dave Watson, General Chair
MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Board of Directors: Don Lee, Gretchen Wilbert
Committee Members: Marsh Allen, Mark Yordy, Dave Watson, Sue Watson, JoAnne Gray, Sue Gillmore, Hugh McMillan, Tonya Lee, Bob Black, Fred Ramsdell, Mary Ramsdell, Keith Stiles
Called to order: 6:00 p.m.
REPORTS
Minutes from September 4, 2002 - Moved and seconded to approve, Approved.
Treasurer's Report: submitted by Colleen Franz; Approved
Pause for memories of Max Bice, Founder of KGHP: Thanks extended to Keith Stiles for tribute to family. It was proposed that PEP-C make a donation or gift of equipment to KGHP in honor of Max. Discussion: various ideas were presented by committee members, such as a donation to Peninsula High School, KGHP itself. It was announced that the family of Max Bice has requested those wishing to make donations contribute to a scholarship fund in Max's name to be given to a broadcasting engineering student.
A motion was made for PEP-C to make a one time donation to the family scholarship fund. The motion was seconded and approved. It was proposed that PEP-C make a $100 donation to the family scholarship fund. Discussion: Various members proposed that a $350 donation would be more generous and one that PEP-C could easily afford to make. It was proposed that Keith Stiles act as liaison between PEP-C and the Bice family to see that the donation is made. A motion was made, seconded and approved.
Committees
1. PARET: Mark Yordy. PARET is currently working with the Washington State Office of Emergency Management to establish a common form of ID among ham radio volunteers. There are currently several forms of ID being used throughout the state among the volunteer ham radio operators and Departments of Emergency Management making it confusing for law enforcement personnel and emergency responders to recognize who to work with during an emergency.
PARET will be involved in two upcoming Pierce County drills. The first, in January, will involve a scenario centered around a volcanic eruption on Mt. Rainier that produces a lahar. The second, in May, will be a cooperative drill between King, Kitsap and Pierce County emergency responders in a scenario involving terrorism. Bob Black discussed this upcoming "Dirty Bomb" drill in May and the funding issues that determine participation.
Mark received a phone call from Senator Pam Roach's office expressing an interest in learning more about ham radio emergency services throughout the state. Mark is very pleased to be attending a meeting with the Senator tomorrow, December 3rd, to share PARET's goals and achievements, including their recent 2nd place recognition in a Field Operations Day. Mayor Wilbert proposed that Mark suggest Senator Roach exert some influence with the State Patrol in working with PARET to design a state-wide recognizable ID card for ham radio operators.
Ham Radio licensing classes will be beginning again in January. Fees are minimal: $20 for the textbook, $6.40 for the exam and $5 to cover the instructor's costs in providing a number of handouts.
2. Webmaster: Sue Gillmore. Website stats report was made available to those interested. In the last 15 months, we have had 4641 visitors come to our website and search an average of 33 pages each. We have 253 first place positions in the top 25 search engines and a total of 1440 top 30 positions. 75% of our visitors are coming from Yahoo! - a 5% drop since September and 16% of our visitors are coming from Google - a 4% increase since September. This is probably a reflection on the changes Yahoo! has made to the search process in their directory and Google's increasing popularity. The last three months have seen record high visits to our website: 585 in September, 514 in October and 684 in November.
3. Training: JoAnne Gray. Don Lee presented PC-NET to the Seacliff neighborhood meeting. Those in attendance were very eager to get the PC-NET training, have begun the sign-up process, and identified 8 neighborhood groups in the development. Two neighborhood groups have already started their PC-NET training meetings.
Sue Gillmore is scheduled to give a presentation at the Gig Harbor Rotary meeting on December 6th as well as a seminar class for Peninsula Light employees and customers in January.
4. Water: Marsh Allen. Don Lee, Dave Watson and Marsh have been playing phone tag with call-in requests for barrels and have experienced some problems with Tacoma customers who don't show up to pick up their barrels at the fire station on this side of the bridge. But the barrels are in demand and sales are good. Don and Tonya Lee volunteered to store water barrels at their place and suggested they are more centrally located and might be more easily found by barrel customers. Marsh will refer inquiries to them. Barrels will continue to be sold by appointment. Dave Watson added that the Peninsula School District is getting ready to place another order.
A chlorine treatment issue was brought to the committee's attention by a website visitor. Since the percentage of sodium hypochlorite has changed recently in grocery store bleach products, do we need to update our instructions for treating stored water on the website? It was decided to let the information stand as it is and check the Red Cross standards.
5. PIO: Hugh McMillan. Our relationship with the new Editor at the Gateway Newspaper is wonderful right now, but PEP-C has had nothing to submit for publication. Hugh encouraged committee members to send him any and all announcements
6. KGHP: Keith Stiles The station is still running on a 24/7 basis and is making progress with their automation. Their major concern with emergency situations is who is going to say it and what are they going to say? In other words, who will make the official news releases to the public and what will those contain? The public has become accustomed to tuning in to KGHP for official instructions. KGHP's listening audience averaged 1400/day during peak summer hours this last year. The station is hoping to to establish a direct line with official sources so that they can disperse accurate and pertinent information quickly. As of right now, the public should expect delays in receiving such announcements. This was the pattern during World War 2 and little has changed.
The question was asked if there is any communication procedure between Pierce County and KGHP at present? Bob Black responded that the EAS line of communication is in place for immediate warning systems and that the AMBER system is in place for abductions only.
The lawsuits are still pending in the FCC office regarding the KGHP frequency take over. There is big money behind the two individuals attempting to take over the frequency; one in Texas and the other in New York. Both are trying to capture the Seattle market.
7. Peninsula School District: Dave Watson. Dave has upcoming meetings with each Principal in the School District to review their safety plans and will be arranging training with the Fire Department for February.
8. Fire District 5: Bob Black. A follow-up workshop on terrorism was held in November among all agencies involved in terrorist mitigation. Three committees were formed at last year's meeting to determine how the agencies will work together. This year's meeting reviewed past and future plans, as well as the Perice County Responder Program, and discussed exercises, resources and target hazards. Major Tom Rudd gave a state of the union message on terrorism identifying possible targets as national monuments that are highly symbolic, or structures that would produce a high loss of life if destroyed. Terrorists are interested in causing economic chaos and producing heavy casualties without getting caught in the process. It was determined that The Narrows Bridge qualified as an economic target.
Regarding the Small Pox threat, there are 100 million doses of vaccine available nationwide. First responders (emergency personnel) will be the first to receive vaccinations. Individuals with AIDS or who are undergoing cancer tratments will be unable to take the vaccine at all due to a high risk of becoming fatally ill from the vaccine.
Effective January 9, 2003 the new Assistant Fire Chief will be Ron Hiraki, a very qualified former Assistant Chief from Seattle. Pierce County is very exicted to have Ron on board in our area.
9. Fire District 16: Fred Ramsdell. Fred suggested that the Purdy bridge was an unlikely terrorist target at present. Its destruction would produce little economic chaos in an area with a relatively low population density. It was good to report no terrorist concerns.
NEW BUSINESS
1. April 5, 2003 Health and Safety Expo, 9 am - 3 pm. Volunteers needed to man the PEP-C booth.
2. April 22-23, 2003 Partners in Emergency Preparedness Seminar in Bellevue. Attendance was opened to all interested members. Marv Nauman, Don & Tonya Lee and Hugh McMillan were approved as this year's attendees.
3. June 7, 2003 Gig Harbor Maritime Parade. The question was raised about the theme. No one knew yet what it will be, but suggested that our focus be on promoting neighborhood training with no candy and no balloons. Suggestions for handouts at the parade included light sticks, flashlights, pint size water packs, a multi tool, thermal blankets, food gars, pencils, pens, post-it pads, etc.
Volunteer needed for Team Leader to design and coordinate efforts for next year's float. Hugh may be able to supply youth group help for the float.
ADJOURNMENT
