View of Mount Rainier at sunrise from Gig Harbor
[photo courtesy of JoAnne Gray, PEP-C]
Peninsula Emergency Preparedness Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday, 1 December 2003
Presiding / Conducting: Dave Watson, General Chair
MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Board of Directors: Gretchen Wilbert, Mayor of Gig Harbor, Marv Nauman
Committee Members: Dave Watson, Sue Watson, JoAnne Gray, Sue Gillmore, Christy Carter, Marsh Allen, Mark Yordy, Keith Stiles, Steve Cain, Rollo Van Slyke, JoAnn Brash
Called to order: 6:00 p.m.
REPORTS
Minutes from June 2, 2003- unavailable
*Note: September 3, 2003 meeting was cancelled
Treasurer's Report: Don Lee (out of state)
Committees
1. PARET: Mark Yordy.
Since Homeland Security was created, ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency System) has been reorganized to coincide with Homeland Security districts. Pierce and King counties are districts unto themselves with Pierce county being district 5. PARET is still working on packet radio. [this allows the sending of faxes and printed material over radio waves] Training and drills continue regularly. A recent drill simulated an emergency with the National District Medical System. Also Pierce county helped with a drunk driver exercise.
2. Webmaster: Sue Gillmore.
While email activity from the website has been slow, we have had 104,804 pages visited since the end of May 2003. A gentleman named Carlton Hall, from the Denver, Colorado area, called recently to request permission to use some of our information on his new website as well as to include a link to our site. He is putting together an online emergency supplies store for many of the items we list on our website. He was referred to the Disclaimer page on our website which details our policy regarding use of our information as well as copyrighted information.
3. Training: JoAnne Gray
Don did JoAnne's neighborhood with PC-NET between June and September. Judi Holley from the Sheriff's Dept did the NAT Crime Prevention portion of JoAnne's neighborhood in 4 meetings between July 10th and October 9th. Attendance at both was maximum 13; disappointing, but typical. Those interested were involved and active. 6 from JoAnne's neighborhood attended the Red Cross Disaster Response Class on October 21st. This was free to our PC-NET members as Pierce county picked up the fee.
Don did the tabletop at Christy Carter's neighborhood on June 5.
Don did the first Divine Estates neighborhood meeting (Cherie Weber) on September 21
Don was scheduled to do 80 homes at Wollochet Bay North. And a presentation to the Harbor Covenant church Board of Directors.
Don and Dave did an all-day training at the Lakes on July 30 (?) with Gretchen O'Connor [was this rescheduled?] Attendance was low and, disappointingly, all new people, not those who had had the first trainings. Thus, the exercise was inappropriate for those without prior exposure.
Dave did a presentation at Peninsula High School PTA in early November. Attendance was sparse.
Dave's neighborhood is again under way.
We opted out of the Maritime Gig Parade because of high required insurance costs.
Many PEP-C committee members met for lunch at the Tides on July 21st.
4. Water: Marsh Allen, Don Lee, Dave Watson, Fred Ramsdell
Dave Watson reported that all of the barrels he had stored on his property were sold just in time to receive a new shipment. We currently have 45 barrels in stock but could order another dozen black barrels. Delivery of barrels to residents in local area is now available.
5. PIO: Hugh McMillan (not in attendance)
6. KGHP: Keith Stiles
Over the summer and fall months, KGHP has functioned on a continuous 24 hour per day, 7 day per week schedule, utilizing an increasing amount of time from our new automation equipment. With the start of school in September, new classes entered the teaching arrangements, and we ran a fairly heavy schedule of live football coverage for both "away" games and "home" games. Internal production turned more and more to various forms of "Electronic Assistance" and we have now dropped all magnetic tape production in favor of "Mini Disks." Loading for Automation Air Copy is now standard at one week ahead.
We have experienced no real internal equipment problems in the period but still face the continued problem of the frequency challenge on 104.5 MHz to both our station and the Mercer Island High School Station (KMIH) by commercial stations KMCQ, KDUX and now, two new translator applications out of KAYO (Olympia area). This challenge has now been before the FCC for about two years. It is very difficult to predict what will or when (and if) anything will happen. Should we (and KMIH) "lose" there will be a number of difficult problems to withstand.
We are now facing requirements for certain new fencing at our Evergreen site to meet relatively new OSHA and FCC rules and this work is moving forward.
During the period, Keith attended two meetings of Pierce County Emergency Management folks and local residents, both called by Mayor, Gretchen Wilbert of Gig Harbor. Keith was asked to speak about KGHP and at each meeting gave his standard, "We will do the best we can with what we have as soon as we are able to identify an emergency working with and under the information direction of The Emergency Operations Center." Such is the history of radio in general, and so it will be practiced at KGHP.
Just last Saturday morning we had a live on-the-air interview with FEMA's Marv Nauman, discussing Federal Disaster Aid available through FEMA for any local residents that suffered flood or water damage during this Fall's heavy rains.
Through generous underwriting by the Key Peninsula Veteran's Institute, we expect to be able to purchase and maintain necessary equipment for the Enhanced Amber Alert System now close to full operation through electronic Gateway facilities at Fort Lewis. We remain fully committed to the best of our ability.
7. PSD: Dave Watson
Nothing to report at this time due to a job change.
New Business
1. Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference - April 13-14, 2004: It was proposed that we send 2 or 3 representatives from PEP-C to attend this year's conference. A motion was made; seconded and approved.
2. Health and Safety Expo - April 3, 2004: The question was raised as to our participation in this event this next year. Most of the interest by the public is in the health screening services available. It was determined that our exposure to the public still warrants our attendance. Dave and Sue Watson as well as Marv Nauman and Christy Carter volunteered to help out this next year.
3. How can we increase our activities? What we have been doing does not seem to be effective. It was proposed that we work with local Church congregations and see if we can arrange to give 20 or 30 minute presentations on personal and neighborhood preparedness (introducing PC-NET and NAT) to encourage preparedness but also to get neighborhoods organized. Leads should be given to Sue Gillmore and she will dispurse them via email to committee members.
ADJOURNED 7:25 PM
