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City of Lyndhurst, Ohio
March 17, 2007
Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) Meeting
MINUTES

Members of the Lyndhurst C.E.R.T. Team Executive Board met on Saturday March 17, 2007 in the first-floor Conference Room of the Lyndhurst Municipal Center.

Present at the meeting were Team members: Bill Allen, Gail Brewster, Joe Briones, Sharon Briones, Lavelle Dorsey, Mike Dragga, Therese Dragga, Keith Packard, Patrick Ward, and Melissa Weldon.

Unable to attend: Firefighter, Captain Dan Isaac; Lane Schlessel and Pat Spellman.

The meeting was called to order by Executive Director Keith Packard at 8:00 a.m. The Minutes from the February 17 meeting were distributed and reviewed. Following a correction to the minutes (Training report): Captain Dan will investigate the details of background checks for CERT applicants and members, not Mike and Sharon. Lavalle made a motion to approve as amended, which Therese seconded.

Committee Reports:

Executive Director's Report - Keith distributed samples of other Cert team guidelines and field manuals for board members to look over. They included the Hoosier County Standard Operation Procedures, The Vermont Rapid Response Plan and others. The Board discussed the policy statements handed out earlier and the group favored the Hoosier guide. Keith will modify the policy statement for Lyndhurst use and email a draft to board members for review.

The SELPOD needs a staff of 100-125, in order to process (500 -750) volunteer victims at the staging site. All volunteers will need to attend the training and orientation meetings scheduled over the course of the next few weeks at various locations. Two I.D.'s will be issued to SELPOD volunteers one a Photo ID and one containing a brief description of the volunteers' job The orientation meetings will be at Notre Dame College where photos for IDs will be taken. This ID is to be maintained in the event that it is needed in the future. No one will be permitted into the staging area without this ID. The assignment meetings will be held at Lyndhurst City Hall, and the final set of meetings will be a walk through at the Brush High School, the staging site for the drill where the patient flow will be demonstrated. Keith related how, on the day of the drill, the property will be policed, streets blocked off and the location secured. Neighboring Homeowners will be notified of the drill using City Watch, the city's reverse 911-phone system; other means of notification are being considered as well.

Training - Mike and Therese were accepting for training at Circleville. They reported they have researched backpack and equipment prices. The current one runs $ 57.44. Following discussion, Pat W. made a motion to keep the "kits" at the current level, Bill seconded and motion was approved. Mike will check on training manuals and their costs.

Finance - No report.

Operations - Sharon and Joe questioned what the defining role of Operations should entail. Keith acknowledged that their role would evolve, as the team gets underway. Both are ready to work on this.

Recruitment and Outreach - No report.

Communications - Melissa checked with Rick Dula of SELREC as to the requirements for having group information published in their booklet(s) such as space limitations, costs and deadlines. She was told that there is no cost to a City entity to be included in the booklet unless SELREC needs to do layout/artwork. Materials should come to them camera ready and if material requires more than Ľ page of space then it needs to be requested as soon as possible; now for Fall book as they layout the book based around the space of the larger ads. It was decided that CERT would like to take a half page "ad" in the fall brochure. She checked with the Sun Messenger to verify submission criteria and was told they need at least a three weeks in order to run an ad and then it is as space permits. The CERT web site is up but needs to be developed. The last issue of the Lyndhurst Neighborhood News did mention the CERT Program so some publicity is out there, more should be in the May newsletter.

Fire Dept. Liaison/ Deputy Director - Lavalle reported on the use of walkie- talkies and the inclusion of a permanent flashlight as standard emergency equipment. Mention was made that team members should check the batteries regularly but remove from the flashlights and carry separately as they have the potential to leak and could ruin their flashlight. It mentioned that we should consider a means by which spare sets of batteries could be made available in the event they are needed over a prolonged period. Lavalle made other recommendations for equipment that should be available such as phone or contact lists, field use sheet, badge or photo ID with case and chain, rubber gloves, prepaid trak phones.

Lavalle reported that smoke detectors were available. Who will install and how they will be distributed, was still a matter of discussion. He described the Good Samaritan program a call list set up to check regularly on those in need, the elderly, handicapped, etc. He also proposed a Lyndhurst watch as a future action. Finally, he warned that we need to be aware of hazardous material and the locations they may be found. Finally, we strive to open the lines of communications with our Police Dept and work with them on the possibility of establishing a Lyndhurst Watch and the call list.

Old Business - none

It was decided that due to the Orientation meeting at 9:00 am on April 14, that the next Board meeting would take place on the same day. Discussion was held and an 8:00 am time was set.

Pat W. moved to adjourn the meeting, Joe seconded. The meeting adjourned at 10:27 am.

IMPORTANT dates:

April 11	7:00 PM	Lyndhurst City Hall – Community Room	SELPOD assignment meeting
April 14	8:00 AM	Lyndhurst City Hall – Conference Room	CERT Exec Board
April 14	9:00 AM	Lyndhurst City Hall – Community Room	SELPOD assignment meeting
April 18	7:30 PM	Lyndhurst Community Center	Joint meeting of Neighbor to Neighbor,Mayor’s Advisory panel and CERT members
April 21	7:00 PM	Brush High School	SELPOD walk through
April 24	9:00 PM	Brush High School	SELPOD walk through
May 5			SELPOD Drill