View of Mount Rainier at sunrise from Gig Harbor
[photo courtesy of JoAnne Gray, PEP-C]
Peninsula Emergency Preparedness Committee Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, 4 September 2002
Presiding / Conducting: Dave Watson, General Chair
MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Board of Directors: Don Lee, Marv Nauman, Bob Jardin, Gretchen Wilbert
Committee Members: Marsh Allen, Mark Yordy, Dave Watson, Colleen Franz, JoAnne Gray, Sue Gillmore, Rollow Van Slyke (new member)
Called to order: 6:00 p.m.
REPORTS
Minutes from June 3, 2002 - Moved and seconded to approve, Approved.
Treasurer's Report: Colleen Franz; Approved
Committees
1. PARET: Mark Yordy. The Field Day at Volunteer Park was a very successful event; highlights were recapped. Mark has received a new assignment to work with the Pierce County EMD, but will still be accessible to PEP-C. He introduced Rollo Van Slyke to the committee who will be taking over the Zone 1 position with PARET. Mark announced that the Burley Amateur Radio Operator Club will be starting licensing classes (see PARET page for more information).
Question: In an emergency, will there be someone on Fox Island at the volunteer fire station broadcasting?
Answer: Yes.
2. Webmaster: Sue Gillmore. Website stats report was made available to those interested. In mid-June of this year, BigPlanet, our Internet Service Provide and website host, made upgrades to their DWP program. This not only changed the look of our website, but the process of the change caused all of the information on our website to disappear. A call was made to DWP Tech Support and a Supervisor was assigned to the task of restoration. Restoration was complete in just under a week; formatting adjustments were completed by Sue, our webmaster, a few days later. The fact that BigPlanet made this upgrade without notifying us, coupled with the prospect of this happening again in the future, it was proposed that the only way to maintain absolute control over the look and content of our website is to copy everything into a Microsoft FrongPage website template and change our host. Discussion followed. The committee decided that the advantages of keeping things as they are outweighed the disadvantages of making any changes. In any case, all of the information on our DWP website is now backed up on the webmaster's hard drive.
3. Training: JoAnne Gray. (Candy Anderson not in attendance). Kudos to all who participated in the Gig Harbor Maritime Parade. Our float, "We're all in the same boat!" was awarded the award for "Best Depiction of Theme." Special thanks to Dave and Sue Gillmore for the use of their boat and SUV, and to Candy for the banners and signs. On June 4th, JoAnne gave a general preparation presentation at the Gig Harbor Noon Rotary as well as a presentation on June 8th at the FICRA board meeting. June 29th, Gretchen Wilbert's neighborhood has begun PC-NET training. On August 10th we had a booth at the Fox Island Community and Recreation Association Fair to boost community awareness of PEP-C. Thanks to JoAnne and Gretchen who manned the booth all day and John Gray for his help in setting up and tearing down. Also, on August 10th, Fred and Mary Ramsdell set up a display at the Fire District 16 Open House. It was announced that Candy Anderson is resigning her position as Training Chair since her business is requiring her full attention. JoAnne also announced that she must also relinquish her involvement in training as well as public presentations due to health concerns. Discussion of replacements produced no solutions at this time.
JoAnne has presentation on Sunday, September 8th with Sea Cliff neighborhood to introduce the PC-NET neighborhood training program; hopes to get four groups organized at that time. Need volunteers for the Health and Safety Expo in april 2003.
4. Water: Marsh Allen. Don Lee and Dave Watson have been running recent barrel sales. The problem of responding to nationwide requests for shipment of our barrels was resolved with information added to our website. Sales have been good. Marsh proposed that sales be suspended during winter months. It was proposed that in lieu of the winter sales, we run an ad with a contact phone number for sales and delivery information. Discussion followed. It was agreed that a single ad would be ineffective; cost of running an ad would probably greatly exceed the number of barrels that would be sold.
It was proposed that we run an ad in the Peninsula Light mailer and include a savings coupon. It was proposed that we include a picture of our water barrels similar to what is on the website. Marv Nauman volunteered to work up the copy and do the layout. JoAnne will call Cindy at Peninsula Light.
5. PIO: Hugh McMillan. (not in attendance)
6. KGHP: Keith Stiles (not in attendance). Keith emailed the following report: KGHP has operated almost constantly on a 24 hour per day basis since the June meeting. They are continuing to work with the automation systems and hope to have them finalized in October. Two new antenna elements were installed in August at the 89.9 site (Evergreeen School - Longbranch home). These new elements were provided by the Peninsula Light Company who also installed them. The new elements are equipped with heaters which should eliminate the problems of icing up in the winter that causes a down-grading of signal strength. Pen Light will also be removing or topping off some of the trees in the area that have been shielding signal strength. We hope that these improvements will improve reception of 89.9 in some areas.
Two major, big-money radio corporations have been attempting to acquire the 104.5 FM frequency in the Greater Seattle area. If they are successful, this would force our translator on Spring Hill to go off the air and would wipe out KMIH, the radio station belonging to The Mercer Island School District. KGHP is fighting this proposal to the FCC and has submitted a 20 page legal brief in addition to 21 exhibits. We anticipate an FCC decision in October. Should the FCC decide against us, we have begun an engineering search for another available frequency.
Typical preparations for the fall/winter season are proceeding as usual. We did a remote from the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce "Back to School" celebration on Sep 3rd at TCC; we will open the football season with "The Fishbowl" on Sep 13th; and we are working to complete an arrangment for the broadcast of some of the TCC basketball games this fall and winter.
7. Peninsula School District: Dave Watson. No report. Dave announced that his role in the school district will be diminishing because of his plans to increase traveling.
8. Fire Districts: Bob Black. (not in attendance - no report)
NEW BUSINESS
1. 9-11 Readiness: Because our nation and local communities have been anticipating the possibility of a recurring terrorist event on Sept 11th of this year, it was proposed that members of the Peninsula Emergency Preparedness Committee be available to offer their services at the EOC. If communications go down, take care of your families first, then come to the EOC and volunteer to help.
ADJOURNMENT
NEXT MEETING
Date: Monday, December 2, 2002
Time: 5:30 for BOD / 6 p.m. for Committee
Location: EOC on Bujacich in Gig Harbor Agenda: TBA
