5 MARCH 2001
Presiding / Conducting: Dave Watson, General Chair
MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Board of Directors: Hugh McMillan, JoAnne Gray, Marv Nauman, Gretchen Wilbert Committee Members: Dave & Sue Watson, Marsh Allen, Gary Franz, Sue Gillmore, Don Lee, Tonya Lee, Candy Anderson, Bob Jardin, Fred & Mary Ramsdell, Keith Stiles, Sharon Slone Excused Due to Illness: Colleen Franz
REPORTS
Minutes 8 January 2001 meeting: Approved
Treasurer’s Report: Colleen Franz (not in attendance)
Committees
1. PARET: Mark Yordy (not in attendance)
2. Webmaster: Sue Gillmore – We now have a total of 257 pages on our website; 148 of those web pages are new since the 8 January meeting. The pages are content rich – most still need photographs. The Individual, Family and Home preparedness information is completed and up as well as some information in the “About Us” section. I will be contacting committee members for information about Neighborhood Preparedness and Community Preparedness to complete those sections. My goal is to have the website complete, including photographs, by the June meeting. I would also like to be ready to submit our website to the search engines for positioning by the June meeting. Also by the June meeting we should be ready to launch a public announcement for PEP-C’s new website as well as support through the Affinity program. Thereafter, I will begin the refining and updating process to the website.
JoAnne asked if we could be ready to publicize our new website by the Health Fair in April. This is a possibility and worthy goal to pursue.
3. Training: JoAnne Gray–No training meetings were conducted since the last meeting. Publicity has been a very big problem. The April 16 seminar will be presented by the Ransdells and the Lees and Granquists have volunteered to do the November seminar. JoAnne asked committee members to do as much as they can in their circles of influence to publicize these events. Also, for your information, most of the training materials are now in possession of Tonya Lee, who has accepted the assignment to act as the Committee Librarian. Those in need of handouts and information for training purposes should contact her. There is much in our library of value.
The question was raised about our conformity to either the SPAN program or the PC/Net program. PEP-C bought rights to the SPAN program from LuAnn Johnson giving us the right to copy and use their materials. It is a very good program. Pierce County has not officially trained PEP-C in their program, PC/Net.
Gretchen Wilbert gave us an update about on-going difficulties in working with the Pierce County Dept. of Emergency Management Services. Since the City of Gig Harbor pays a substantial sum of money to Pierce County for their Emergency Management Services, she is anxious to know what the City of Gig Harbor gets in return. Gretchen will be contacting Wanda in the next day or two and hopes to schedule a meeting where Pierce County can present its official training program for the City of Gig Harbor. She would like as many PEP-C members there as possible, especially the Trainers. It was proposed that Board members be at this meeting as well. If we open this meeting to the public and publicize it well, we may be able to draw on those who attend to launch neighborhood meetings.
Dave Watson indicated that he was aware that Pierce County was changing its EMS (Emergency Management Services) focus. But the details of such changes have not been forthcoming. He asked Gary Franz to see if he could find out a little more about what their plans are.
4. Water Barrels: Marsh Allen –Sales have been terrible. Only 2 barrels were purchased on February 17th. Publicity for barrel sales is even worse. One of our signs has disappeared. The next sale will be March 17th. Because of the recent earthquake, sales may be better. Marsh announced that he will be having back surgery soon and will need to be relieved of his responsibilities for the next 4 months or so. Don Lee volunteered to fill in. Dave Watson takes his pick-up truck full of barrels throughout the school district as he visits various sites and anticipates he’ll sell 60 or 70 barrels. The Watsons and Lees will help with the March 17th sale; Lees and Marv Nauman will handle the April 21st sale; Hugh McMillan and Marv Nauman will help with the May 19th sale and the Watsons and Lees will take charge of the June 17th sale.
JoAnne proposed designing a rain barrel kit to meet the community concern for this year’s water storage. Several committee members will look into sources for contents for this kit. JoAnne also proposed that committee members post a small sign in their vehicles advertising water preparedness and water barrel sales. The committee responded favorably.
5. P.I.O.: Hugh McMillan
We recently got good exposure and coverage in the newspaper through Shirley Walston but all 3 local newspapers are increasingly reluctant to publicize water barrel sales or much else from PEP-C. Gretchen indicated that right now we have a prime opportunity to get preparedness information out to the public through the newspapers because of the latest earthquake. They ought to be very interested in such information in light of the fact that we just had a BIG one. We need to have a sympathetic liaison at the Gateway as well as the other local newspapers. It was proposed that Hugh ask the Gateway to assign us to a liaison. Management is changing at every level right now and there are financial concerns. Perhaps in the midst of all these changes, it would be good timing to propose a liaison.
Bob Jardin asked about the PEP-C card proposal he initiated at the January meeting. He has talked to a number of local businesses and they are very willing to display our information cards. Having emergency information fields on the back would make these cards valuable to citizens. Hugh McMillan and Candy Anderson were assigned to work together to get these published. The Committee authorized them to use up to $200 to get these cards printed.
Anyone with news or information to publish to the general public should contact Hugh and he’ll get it to the local newspapers.
6. KGHP: Keith Stiles – The radio station had a busy 3 hours following the earthquake on Feb. 27th. The station is currently working towards broadcasting 24x7. The grant they were awarded is quite an honor. They are currently about half way through it now. The Henderson Bay translator is being moved very shortly to the Fox Island location. This move will boost the signal for the southern end of the peninsula. Pen Light has been a BIG help in all of this.
7. Fire 16: Gary Franz – Reported a number of minor incidents from the earthquake: a few chimneys collapsed, parts of hwy 302 have collapsed, 2 decks separated from their house structure, there was 1 vehicle accident and 1 propane tank leak. Considering the magnitude of the earthquake, the community fared very well. Fire Station 1, the oldest of the stations, experienced considerable damage: the floor sunk about an inch, walls separated, and there are lateral cracks. It was recommended that a structural engineer take a look at the building and evaluate the extent of the damage. Fire station 5 has a leak in their 90,000 gallon water tank. Another station’s concrete floor “heaved” somewhat during the earthquake due to faulty construction conditions. Fire station 3 sustained a vertical crack (vertical cracks are not structurally serious. Lateral cracks are.) The Fire Department has a meeting Wednesday morning (March 7th) to evaluate the incidents, propose improvements to their emergency response plans, etc.
8. Fire 5: Fred Ramsdell – Reported minor incidents as a result of the earthquake: some trees came down and a broken water line. No critical emergencies arose. The police showed up at the EOC as part of their emergency response plan, but left because it got too boring. There just were not serious situations that needed their attention. The normal routine of Fire 5 is to check public facilities following a major event (schools, bridges, etc.). Considering our proximity to the epicenter and the magnitude of the quake, there was very little damage sustained.
9. Peninsula School District: Dave Watson – All sites have completed their safety training. The last training was actually completed the day before the earthquake. The school district experienced a few glitches during the earthquake. The main problem was in the release of students to non-authorized neighbors and friends. This was a problem with the Gig Harbor High School more than others. But, all in all, the kids responded well to the event. There was a little confusion about evacuation procedures. Old policy dictates that teachers wait for official word to evacuate students. New policy dictates that teachers should evacuate students if they feel unsafe. Gary Franz commended Dave for his training efforts and reported that the Fire Station was able to listen in on the school communications. They were impressed with the emergency response procedures executed by school personnel and consequently felt no need to assist. Dave also reported that most of the custodians and principals have been trained to examine their buildings for structural damage. It was necessary for students to remain outside until those who have been trained could make a complete inspection of the buildings. Evaluation forms have been sent to all the schools for them to evaluate their own response to the event. Dave will present a summary of those evaluations at our next meeting.
10. City of Gig Harbor: Mayor Wilbert – Reported a temporary power failure and back-up generator failure. The problem was easily fixed and power was restored to city offices. Gretchen is going to ask the city to conduct an annual update for employees on emergency plans and procedures. They realized that a number of their employees are new and have never been instructed in emergency response procedures.
The discussion about problems with Pierce County was renewed. Wanda, at Pierce County, can train neighborhoods within Gig Harbor city limits. But this will affect only 6-7 thousand of the 40-50 thousand residents on the peninsulas. PEP-C ought to be allowed to train neighborhoods outside the city limits. But the County wants us to do things their way so that everyone is “on the same page” so to speak. The problem we face, is the county’s lack of support and training for this. Gary Franz proposed PEP-C do lunch with some of these people and promote better relations.
11. Health Fair: Saturday, April 7th, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Don Lee – We have space outside and under cover. We want to narrow our focus at this fair rather than do a shotgun preparedness approach. We will focus on emergency water storage. We will have a barrel display with running water (Dave Watson will be lending his pond pumps for this), a handout sheet and will provide information on water barrel sales. Pen Light will be there selling their emergency kits as well as the Red Cross. Set up will be from 1-5 p.m. on April 6th. Watsons, Ramsdells, Lees and Marv Nauman will help with set-up.
12. Banners: JoAnne – A 4 foot by 2 foot banner has been purchased for PEP-C to use at public events such as the Health Fair. It was proposed that one or two more be purchased. Various captions were discussed and the committee approved “Got Water?” for one banner (which will also include our web address) and “I’m Read – Are You?” for the other. Other publicity measures such as bumper stickers were proposed. Dave Watson will inquire as to costs. The Committee approved the purchase of two more banners ($48 each).
13. Parade: Saturday 2 June 2001 10 a.m. Lees – We plan to have 4 walkers in front of our “float.” The float will consist of an old boat supported on a flatbed trailer with banners that reflect Noah’s ultimate preparedness. JoAnne has the perfect boat, Fred Ramsdell has a flatbed trailer and Dave Watson has the truck to pull it. Marv Nauman volunteered to be Noah. The Parade committee has some fun ideas brewing and will continue working on this idea. Don Lee demonstrated the latest fashion in barrel-wear for the committee. He has 2 volunteers so far to model these barrels in the parade. Gary Franz was asked to find 2 to 4 more “hunks” willing to show these off for us. JoAnne has the music for the Beer Barrel Polka and Fred Ramsdell volunteered his sound system and speakers. The Lees and JoAnne are currently looking to locate rootbeer barrel candy online. The Board approved $650 for expenses for the Health Fair and the Parade.
CALENDAR & NEW BUISNIESS
1. The annual…………. Preparedness Conference is coming up April 17-18. It will be held in Bellevue at the Double Tree Inn. It is an excellent conference. JoAnne attended last year and suggested that 2-3 more committee members attend this year. Each hour features several classes to choose from. Having several in attendance means that more information can be gleaned and returned to the committee. Sue Gillmore, Bob Jardin and Marv Nauman volunteered to go this year.
2. Discussion and ideas for increasing PEP-C membership was deferred to the June meeting.
3. Time was given for committee members to share their experience of the earthquake that hit 10:55 a.m. on Tuesday, February 27th. Marv Nauman had USGS maps and information to share. He also reported that pet shops and animal shelters all reported their animals made constant noise for the 24 hours preceding the event, but were absolutely silent for the 2 minutes that immediately preceded the quake. He suggested that if we have lots of animals in our neighborhoods, we ought to cue into their noise as well as their silence as warning signals. Gary Franz discussed the latest rumor regarding a bigger earthquake that is to hit between March 7 and 12 (some are saying March 7-23). Official word is that there is no greater risk for another earthquake between March 7th and 23rd this year than there was last year between those dates.
ADJOURNMENT – 8:05 p.m.
NEXT MEETING
Date: Monday, 4 June 2001
Time: 5:30 for BOD / 6 p.m. for Committee
Location: EOC in Gig Harbor Agenda: Annual meeting with elections
