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Resident urges town to revive community emergency plan; council and staff point to CERT, generator and open roles
Summary
A Springdale resident asked the council on March 12 to build a community-based emergency support plan with backup communications and a generator for the community center after concerns raised about past outage responses.
A Springdale resident told the town council on March 12 he is concerned that a large-scale power or communications outage would leave visitors and residents without information and cause crowds at the community center. He urged the council to consider a community-based emergency response plan with backups such as a generator, alternate communications and organized volunteers.
Gil Kiefer described prior flood response when many people converged on the community center and said last month’s emergency-preparedness presentation focused on individual households rather than community-scale communications and coordination. Kiefer asked whether the town would consider equipping the community support center with a generator and backup communications, and suggested recruiting volunteers to manage traffic and help visitors leave safely.
Mayor and staff said community emergency planning is underway in several forms. The council said printed newsletter notices list a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program previously led by Megan Orton of Rockville; Orton is looking for volunteers and online training is available. Councilors said chief Brack is updating an emergency response plan and the town prioritized a backup generator for town hall in this year’s budget after problems in the last outage.
Council staff recommended recruiting volunteers and coordination with Garren and other staff who fill emergency-management roles; staff said the Canyon Community Center was built to serve as a community support center. Kiefer volunteered to help recruit and develop an approach focused on communications rather than medical response. Council members repeatedly said they want community involvement and local volunteers to step forward to build and sustain any broader plan.
The council also discussed a planned emergency-preparedness fair and the possibility of hosting a CERT or community-preparedness booth at that event to recruit volunteers and provide public information.
